BR50  .H35  1861 

Hedge,  Frederic  Heruy,  1805-1890, 
Recent  inquiries  in  theology  :  by  eminent 
English  churchmen  ;  being  "Essays  and  re\ 


ESSAYS    AND    REVIEWS 


"  A  work,  that,  in  a  less  pusillanimous  age,  would  awaken  admir- 
ing sympathy,  as  well  as  provoke  open  and  spirited  opposition.  .  .  . 
The  social  and  official  position  of  the  authors,  their  learning,  their 
abilities,  and  their  sincerity,  courage,  and  earnest,  reverential  spirit, 
as  attested  by  their  joint  publication,  entitle  them  to  an  unpreju- 
diced and  considerate  hearing."  —  Westminster  Review. 

"  The  themes  are  handled  with  great  freshness  and  freedom,  and 
sometimes  with  conspicuous  ability.  The  writers  are  men,  evi- 
dently, who  have  discovered  that  reason  was  given  them  to  be  used, 
and  not  to  be  trifled  with ;  and  that  the  highest  problems  in  religion, 
philosophy,  and  cosmogony  are  not  to  be  settled  by  the  literal  sense 
of  the  Apocalypse  or  the  Book  of  Genesis. 

"  This  book  is  a  new  thing  in  Christendom We  are  brought 

into  communion  with  men  who  are  so  strong  in  faith,  that  they  un- 
dertake to  show  the  compatibility  of  the  freest  handling  of  the  let- 
ter, and  of  everything  external,  with  the  heartiest  conviction  of  the 
everlasting  power,  worth,  and  beauty  of  the  Gospel."  —  Monthly 
Religious  Magazine. 

"It  is  a  most  significant  fruit  of  modern  scholarship  and  of 
robust  courage  given  to  the  treatment  of  the  issue  between  the  old 
traditionary  faith  and  the  new  knowledge.  Dr.  Hedge  has  fur- 
nished an  Introduction  to  this  American  edition,  in  which  he  shows 
how  thoroughly  he  masters  the  whole  scope  of  its  contents,  and  how 
gratefully  he  recognizes  the  noble  vigor  and  spirit  of  its  writers. 

In  these  seven  Essays  our  readers  will  find  bold  and  earnest 

writing,  profound  scholarship,  and  a  large  and  generous  culture, 
brought  to  bear,  in  a  spirit  of  reverence,  upon  the  discussion  of 
nearly  every  point  involved  in  the  antagonism  between  the  old 
faith  and  the  new  knowledge  of  Christendom."  —  Christian  Ex- 


'^tmi  fitpries  in  C^0%j, 


BT  EMINENT  ENGLISH  CHURCHMEN 


'ESSAYS    AND    REVIEWS." 


Secontr  Slmetfcan,  from  tfjc  Scconti  Hontron  Htiftfon. 


WITH    AN    APPENDIX. 


EDITED,    -WITH   AN   INTRODUCTION, 


By  EEV.  FEEDEEIC  H.  HEDGE,  D.D. 


BOSTON: 

WALKER,    WISE,    AND    COMPANY 

•   245  Washington  Street. 

18  6  1. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1860,  by 

WALKER,    WISE,    &    CO., 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


University  Press,  Cambridge  : 
Stereotyped  and  Printed  by  Welch,  Bigelow,  &  Co. 


TO   THE   READER. 


It  will  be  readily  understood,  that  the  authors  of 
the  ensuing  Essays  are  responsible  for  their  respec- 
tive articles  only.  They  have  written  in  entire  in- 
dependence of  each  other,  and  without  concert  or 
comparison. 

The  volume,  it  is  hoped,  will  be  received  as  an 
attempt  to  illustrate  the  advantage  derivable  to  the 
cause  of  religious  and  moral  truth  from  a  free  hand- 
ling, in  a  becoming  spirit,  of  subjects  peculiarly 
liable  to  suffer  by  the  repetition  of  conventional  lan- 
guage, and  from  traditional  methods  of  treatment. 


PUBLISHERS^    NOTE 


The  first  edition  of  "  Recent  Inquiries "  was  absorbed  almost 
immediately  after  publication.  To  tlie  present  edition  is  added 
an  Appendix,  containing  a  valuable  note  by  the  American  Ed- 
itor, and  Dr.  Temple's  admirable  Sermon  delivered  before  the 
University  of  Oxford,  during  the  meeting  of  the  British  Asso- 
ciation. 

Boston,  January,  1861. 


CONTENTS. 


Pagb 

American  Editor's  Introduction ix 


THE^EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD.    By  Frederick 
""Temple,  D.D.,  Chaplain  in  Ordinary  to  the  Queen ;  Head 
Master  of  Rugby  School ;  Chaplain  to  the  Earl  of  Den- 
bigh              1 


BlIXSEN'S  BIBLICAL  RESEARCHES.  By  Rowland 
Williams,  D.D.,  Yice-Principal,  and  Professor  of  He- 
brew, St.  David's  College,  Lampeter;  Vicar  of  Broad 
Chalke,  Wilts 57 

Note  on  Bunsen's  Biblical  Researches 105 

ON  THE  STUDY  OF  TEffi^EVIDENCES  OF  CHRIS- 
TIANITY. By  BadenTowell,  M.A.,  F.R.S.,  &c.,  &c., 
Savilian  Professor  of  Geometry  in  the  University  of 
Oxford 106 

SEANCES  HISTORIQUES  DE  GENEVE— THE  NA- 
TIONAL CHURCH.  By  Henry  Bristow  ^Vilson, 
B.D.,  Vicar  of  Great  Stoughton,  Hunts 163 

ON  THE  MOSAIC  COSMOGONY.  By  C.  W.  Good- 
win, M.A 233 

TENDENCIES  OF  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT  IN  ENG- 
LAND, 1688-1750.     By  Mark  Pattison,  B.D.  .     .     .    279 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE.    By 

Benjamin^Jowett,  M.A.,  Regius  Professor  of  Greek  in 

the  University  of  Oxford 362 


APPENDIX. 


NaxE  ON  THE  "Phalaris  Controversy" 483 

The  Present  Relations  of  Science  to  Religion.    By 
Rev.  Frederick  Temple,  D.D 486 


INTEODUCTION  TO  THE  AMEEICAN  EDITION. 


The  favor  with  which  "Essays  and  Reviews"  —  a  very 
significant  volume  with  a  very  insignificant  title  —  has  been 
received  on  this  side  of  the  water  suggested  the  following 
reprint,  with  altered  name,  for  American  use. 

The  seven  dissertations,  on  as  many  distinct  topics  of 
theology,  which  compose  this  volume  are  severally  the  pro- 
ductions of  English  Churchmen,  writing  independently  each 
of  each,  and  unconnected,  save  by  the  fellowship  of  a  Hberal 
faith.  Some  of  the  writers  occupy  conspicuous  stations,  and 
are  men  of  distinguished  repute.  Two  are  professors  in  the 
University  of  Oxford ;  one  is  professor  in  St.  David's  Col- 
lege, in  "Wales  ;  and  one  is  successor  to  the  late  Dr.  Arnold, 
in  the  headship  of  the  Rugby  School.  The  names  of  Jowett 
and  of  Rowland  Williams  are  favorably  known  to  American 
readers  in  connection  with  a  volume  of  "  Theological  Essays," 
edited  four  years  since  by  Professor  Noyes.  That  of  Baden 
Powell  *  is  no  less  eminent  in  physical  science  than  in  sacred 
learning. 

*  The  news  has  just  reached  us  of  the  recent  death  of  this  eminent 
scholar.  The  University  of  Oxford  loses  in  him  one  of  its  brightest  orna- 
ments, and  the  cause  of  liberal  theology  m  the  Church  of  England  its  ablest 
advocate. 


X  INTRODUCTION  TO   THE  AMERICAN  EDITION. 

These  Essays  have  a  value  distinct  from,  and  transcending, 
that  of  the  speculations  or  conclusions  they  embody.  They 
represent  a  new  era  in  Anglican  theology.  The  topics  here 
discussed  are  handled  with  a  frankness,  a  breadth,  and  a  spirit- 
ual heroism  long  unknown  to  ecclesiastical  England.  The 
sincerity  wliich  speaks  in  them  recalls  the  better  days  of  a 
church,  which  in  CathoHc  ages,  and  as  a  branch  of  Catholic 
Christendom,  could  boast  such  names  as  John  Scotus,  Anselm, 
Duns,  Alexander  of  Hales,  and  Roger  Bacon,  and  which 
numbers  a  More  and  a  Cudworth  among  her  Protestant 
divines. 

The  apathy  into  which  the  Church  of  England  had  fallen 
toward  the  close  of  the  last  century,  her  indifference  to  all 
theological  inquiry,  her  barrenness  of  all  theological  learning, 
up  to  the  time  of  the  late  Tractarian  movement  about  a 
quarter  of  a  century  ago,  are  notorious  and  disgraceful  alike 
to  church  and  nation.  It  was  during  this  period,  precisely, 
—  from  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  to  the  third 
decade  of  the  nineteenth,  —  that  German  theology,  ranging 
through  an  illustrious  pedigree  of  profound  scholars,  from 
Semler  and  Griesbach  to  De  Wette  and  Ewald,  explored  every 
field  of  biblical,  ecclesiastical,  dogmatic  inquiry,  and  accom- 
plished its  great  revolution. 

In  these  investigations  and  their  results,  the  Church  of 
England  had  no  part  or  interest,  and  no  faith ;  regarding  in 
her  supineness  every  inquiry  which  did  not  presume  the 
inviolable  truth  of  her  own  prepossessions,  and  confirm  the 
status  quo  of  the  canon  and  the  text,  as  made  in  the  interest 
of  infidelity.  The  period  immediately  preceding  this  (1700- 
1750)  was,  notwithstanding  the  condemnation  in  which  the 
author  of  the   sixth  of  these   Essays  concludes   the   entire 


INTRODUCTION  TO   THE  AMERICAN  EDITION.  xi 

century,  an  era  of  wide  and  beneficent  activity.  It  embraced 
the  works  of  Samuel  Clarke,  the  worthy  compeer  of  Newton 
and  Leibnitz  and  Locke ;  it  embraced  the  latter  and  liberal 
writings  of  Whitby;  it  embraced  the  labors  of  Waterland 
and  Hoadly,  of  Bingham  and  Bishop  Butler,  of  Lowth  and 
Lardner  and  Prideaux  and  Middleton ;  it  embraced  the  ear- 
nest philosophy  of  Berkeley,  and  the  mystic  piety  of  Law. 

A  marked  difference  in  the  character  and  aims  of  leading 
Churchmen  divides,  as  Mr.  Pattison  admits,  the  second  half 
of  the  century  from  the  first.  To  the  writers  above  named 
succeeded  a  generation  of  men  who  brought  quite  other  powers 
to  quite  other  tasks.  With  one  or  two  honorable  exceptions, 
like  that  of  Herbert  Marsh,  whatever  of  learning  or  of  insight 
Enghsh  theology  then  could  boast  was  outside  of  the  AngU- 
can  Church.  The  problem  which  mainly  occupied  the  theo- 
logical mind  of  the  time  was  the  attempt  to  prove  the  truth 
of  the  gospel  by  demonstrating  an  external  relation  be- 
tween it  and  God.  Christianity,  whose  fundamental  postulate 
is  the  inner  light  by  which  it  manifests  itself  as  the  truth 
of  God,  was  advocated  on  the  ground  of  certain  facts,  which, 
if  true,  would  prove  God  to  be  its  Author,  and  belief  in  it 
obhgatory  on  pain  of  damnation.  The  student  of  the  history 
of  opinions  might  trace  here  a  legitimate  result  of  the  then 
prevailing  philosophy  of  Locke.  A  germ  of  mischief  lurked 
in  the  immortal  "  Essay,"  whose  fructification  had  so  infected 
the  intellectual  atmosphere  of  the  time,  so  vitiated  its  concep- 
tions, so  dimmed  and  confused  the  consciousness  of  God,  that, 
instead  of  the  divine  Inpresence  and  informing  Word  of  the 
old  theologians,  a  prodigy  in  nature  was  held  to  be  the  only 
possible  mediator  between  God  and  man,  the  only  possible 
voucher  and  vehicle  of  revelation.     Christianity  was  to  be 


Xll  INTRODUCTION   TO   THE   AMERICAN  EDITION. 

received  on  account  of  its  miracles,  not  the  miracles  on  account 
of  the  more  commanding  truth  of  Christianity. 

Nor  did  the  decHne  of  faith  stop  here.  The  very  being  of 
God  was  no  longer  a  self-evident  truth,  but  a  question  of  logic, 
to  be  tried  and  settled  by  the  understanding.  The  living 
God  was  become  a  probable  being;  belief  in  God,  the  result 
of  induction.  To  crown  all,  morality  itself,  the  absolute  right, 
was  virtually  denied,  and  moral  obligation  reduced  to  the 
expediency  of  obeying  a  being  who  possesses  the  power  to 
harm  us  "  in  another  world."  And  since  the  existence  of  such 
a  being,  for  the  human  subject,  was  supposed  to  depend  on  a 
demonstration,  moral  obligation  ceased,  according  to  thi-s  view, 
for  all  whom  that  demonstration  should  fail  to  convince.  The 
religious  philosophy  of  unbelief  reached  its  climax  in  Paley, 
exhibiting  in  him  the  strange  phenomenon  of  a  right-minded, 
Christian  man,  a  preacher  of  the  gospel,  endeavoring  to  rear 
a  system  of  ethics  on  a  virtual  negation  of  the  fundamental 
distinction  of  right  and  wrong ;  a  result  commensurable  only 
with  the  recent  attempt  of  Mr.  Mansel  to  base  reHgion  on 
Pyrrhonism. 

The  practical  evil  attending  this  degraded  theology,  the 
apathy  and  irreligion  of  the  "  Georgian  era,"  found  a  correc- 
tive in  the  rise  of  Methodism.  That  new  dispensation  of  the 
gospel  reacted  with  heaUng  power  on  the  Church.  Its  intel- 
lectual aberrations  encountered  a  check  in  the  new  turn  of 
religious  thought  which  dates  with  Coleridge.  The  "  Aids  to 
Reflection,"  fragmentary  and  unsatisfactory  as  a  system,  con- 
tained in  its  fruitful  suggestions  the  germ  of  a  new  life,  whose 
development  is  now  in  progress. 

Another  contemporary  reaction,  of  a  more  demonstrative 
kind,  is  that  represented  by  Dr.  Pusey,  and  popularly  known 


INTEODUCTION   TO   THE  AAIERICAN  EDITION.         XUl 

by  his  name.  But  this  movement,  whose  tendency  is  rather 
liturgical  than  theological,  diverges  too  widely  from  the  prov- 
idential current  of  the  time,  and  the  genius  of  the  people, 
to  be  anything  more  than  an  episode  in  the  history  of  the 
Church  whose  theoretical  contradictions  it  has  served  to  illus- 
trate, and  whose  order  it  has  so  profoundly  agitated.  The 
full  development  and  thorough  application  of  the  principles 
involved  in  it  necessitate,  as  recent  defections  from  the 
national  communion  in  favor  of  Romanism  have  shown,  the 
entire  abandonment  of  the  Protestant  ground. 

The  future  of  the  Church  is  committed  to  another  interest, 
and  a  different  order  of  minds.  The  life  of  Anglican  theology 
is  now  represented  by  such  men  as  Powell  and  Williams  and 
Maurice  and  Jowett  and  Stanley.  Its  strain  and  promise  are 
apparent  in  these  Essays. 

The  term  "  Broad  Church  "  has  been  used  to  designate  the 
new  phase  of  ecclesiastical  life,  whose  characteristics  are 
breadth  and  freedom  of  view,  an  earnest  spirit  of  inquiry 
and  resolute  criticism,  joined  to  a  reverent  regard  for  eccle- 
siastical tradition  and  the  common  faith  of  mankind.  The 
spirit  of  this  theology  is  at  once  progressive  and  conservative ; 
careful  of  all  essential  sanctities,  careful  also  of  the  rights 
of  the  mind,  of  the  interests  of  science,  and  the  "  Hberty  of 
prophesying;"  carefully  adjusting  old  views  with  new  dis- 
coveries, transient  forms  with  everlasting  verities ;  regarding 
symbols  and  "Articles"  as  servants  of  thought,  not  as  laws 
of  thought;  as  imperfect  attempts  to  articulate  truth,  not  as 
the  measure  and  gauge  of  truth. 

RationaHstic  it  is,  inasmuch  as  it  is  Protestant;  for,  of 
Rationalism,  the  only  alternative  is  Romanism.  Yet  assum- 
ing in  Christianity  itself  the  perfection  of  reason,  and  beheving 


XIV         INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  Al^IERICAN  EDITION. 

that  the  truest  insight  in  spiritual  things  is  where  the  human 
intellect,  freely  inquiring,  encounters  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
that  such  encounter  is  afforded  by  the  Gospel,  it  goes  about 
to  analyze  and  interpret,  not  to  gainsay  or  destroy  ;  reverently 
listening,  if  here  and  there  it  may  catch  some  accents  of  the 
Eternal  Voice  amid  the  confused  dialects  of  Scripture,  yet  not 
confounding  the  latter  with  the  former ;  expecting  to  find  in 
criticism,  guided  by  a  true  philosophy,  the  key  to  revelation ; 
in  revelation,  the  sanction  and  condign  expression  of  philo- 
sophic truth. 

May  this  spirit,  which  is  now  leavening  the  Church  of 
England,  find  abundant  entrance  into  all  the  churches  of  our 
own  land !  and  may  this  volume,  its  genuine  product,  though 
very  imperfect  exponent,  contribute  somewhat  thereto ! 

F.   H.   HEDGE. 

Brookline,  Aug.  14,  1860. 


THE  EDUCATION  OE  THE  WORLD. 


By  FREDERICK  TEMPLE,  D.D. 

IN  a  world  of  mere  phenomena,  -where  all  events 
are  bound  to  one  another  by  a  rigid  law  of  cause 
and  effect,  it  is  possible  to  imagine  the  course  of  a 
long  period,  bringing  all  things  at  the  end  of  it  into 
exactly  the  same  relations  as  they  occupied  at  the 
beginning.  We  should,  then,  obviously  have  a  suc- 
cession of  cycles,  rigidly  similar  to  one  another,  both 
in  events  and  in  the  sequence  of  them.  The  universe 
would  eternally  repeat  the  same  changes  in  a  fixed 
order  of  recurrence,  though  each  cycle  might  be  many 
millions  of  years  in  length.  Moreover,  the  precise 
similarity  of  these  cycles  would  render  the  very  exist- 
ence of  each  one  of  them  entirely  unnecessary.  We 
can  suppose,  without  any  logical  inconsequence,  any 
one  of  them  struck  out,  and  the  two  which  had  been 
destined  to  precede  and  follow  it  brought  into  imme- 
diate contiguity. 

This  supposition  transforms  the  universe  into  a 
dead  machine.  The  lives  and  the  souls  of  men  be- 
come so  indifferent,  that  the  annihilation  of  a  whole 
human  race,  or  of  many  such  races,  is  absolutely 
nothing.  Every  event  passes  away  as  it  happens 
filling  its  place  in  the  sequence,  but  purposeless  for 
1 


2  THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

the  future.  The  order  of  all  things  becomes  not 
merely  an  iron  rule,  from  which  nothing  can  ever 
swerve,  but  an  iron  rule  which  guides  to  nothing  and 
ends  in  nothing. 

Such  a  supposition  is  possible  to  the  logical  under- 
standing :  it  is  not  possible  to  the  spirit.  The  human 
heart  refuses  to  believe  in  a  universe  without  a  pur- 
pose. To  the  spirit,  all  things  that  exist  must  have  a 
purpose  ;  and  nothing  can  pass  away  till  that  purpose 
be  fulfilled.  The  lapse  of  time  is  no  exception  to  this 
demand.  Each  momelit  of  time,  as  it  passes,  is  taken 
up  in  the  shape  of  permanent  results  into  the  time 
that  follows,  and  only  perishes  by  being  converted 
into  something  more  substantial  than  itself.  A  series 
of  recurring  cycles,  however  conceivable  to  the  logical 
understanding,  is  inconceivable  to  the  spirit ;  for  every 
later  cycle  must  be  made  different  from  every  earlier 
by  the  mere  fact  of  coming  after  it  and  embodying  its 
results.  The  material  world  may  possibly  be  subject 
to  such  a  rule,  and  may,  in  successive  epochs,  be  the 
cradle  of  successive  races  of  spiritual  beings  ;  but 
the  world  of  spirits  cannot  be  a  mere  machine. 

In  accordance  with  this  difference  between  the 
material  and  the  spiritual  worlds,  we  ought  to  be 
prepared  to  find  progress  in  the  latter,  however  much 
fixity  there  may  be  in  the  former.  The  Earth  may 
still  be  describing  precisely  the  same  orbit  as  that 
which  was  assigned  to  her  at  the  creation.  The  sea- 
sons may  be  precisely  the  same.  The  planets,  the 
moon,  and  the  stars  may  be  unchanged  both  in  ap- 
pearance and  in  reality.  But  man  is  a  spiritual  as 
well  as  a  material  creature  ;  must  be  subject  to  the 
laws  of  the  spiritual  as  well  as  to  those  of  the  material 
world ;  and  cannot  stand  still  because  things  around 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD.  8 

him  do.  Now,  that  the  individual  man  is  capable  of 
perpetual,  or  almost  perpetual,  development,  from  the 
day  of  his  birth  to  that  of  his  death,  is  obvious  of 
course.  But  we  may  well  expect  to  find  something 
more  than  this  in  a  spiritual  creature  who  does  not 
stand  alone,  but  forms  a  part  of  a  whole  world  of 
creatures  like  himself.  Mail  cannot  be  considered  as 
.an  individual.  He  is,  in  reality,  only  man  by  virtue 
of  his  being  a  member  of  the  human  race.  Any  other 
animal  that  we  know  would  probably  not  be  very  dif- 
ferent in  its  nature,  if  brought  up,  from  its  very  birth, 
apart  from  all  its  kind.  A  child  so  brought  up,  be- 
comes, as  instances  could  be  adduced  to  prove,  not  a 
man  in  the  full  sense  at  all,  but  rather  a  beast  in 
human  shape  ;  with  human  faculties,  no  doubt,  hidden 
underneath,  but  with  no  hope,  in  this  life,  of  ever  de- 
veloping those  faculties  into  true  humanity.  If,  then, 
the  whole  in  this  case,  as  in  so  many  others,  is  prior 
to  the  parts,  we  may  conclude  that  we  are  to  look  for 
that  progress  which  is  essential  to  a  spiritual  being 
subject  to  the  lapse  of  time,  not  only  in  the  individual, 
but  also  quite  as  much  in  the  race  taken  as  a  whole. 
We  may  expect  to  find,  in  the  history  of  man,  each 
successive  age  incorporating  into  itself  the  substance 
of  the  preceding. 

This  power,  whereby  the  present  ever  gathers  into 
itself  the  results  of  the  past,  transforms  the  human 
race  into  a  colossal  man,  whose  life  reaches  from  the 
creation  to  the  day  of  judgment.  The  successive 
generations  of  men  are  days  in  this  man's  life.  The 
discoveries  and  inventions  which  characterize  the  dif- 
ferent epochs  of  the  world's  history  are  his  works. 
The  creeds  and  doctrines,  the  opinions  and  principles, 
of  the  successive  ages,  are  his  thoughts.     The  state 


4  THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

of  society  at  different  times  are  liis  manners.  He 
grows  in  knowledge,  in  self-control,  in  visible  size, 
just  as  we  do  ;  and  his  education  is,  in  the  same 
way,  and  for  the  same  reason,  precisely  similar  to 
ours. 

All  this  is  no  figure,  but  only  a  compendious  state- 
ment of  a  very  comprehensive  fact.  The  child  that 
is  born  to-day  may  possibly  have  the  same  faculties 
as  if  he  had  been  born  in  the  days  of  Noah  :  if  it  be 
otherwise,  we  possess  no  means  of  determining  the 
difference  But  the  equality  of  the  natural  faculties, 
at  starting,  will  not  prevent  a  vast  difference  in  their 
ultimate  development.  That  development  is  entirely 
imder  the  control  of  the  influences  exerted  by  the 
society  in  which  the  child  may  chance  to  live.  If 
such  society  be  altogether  denied,  the  faculties  perish, 
and  the  child  (as  remarked  above)  grows  up  a  beast, 
and  not  a  man.  If  the  society  be  uneducated  and 
coarse,  the  growth  of  the  faculties  is  early  so  stunted 
as  never  afterwards  to  be  capable  of  recovery :  if  the 
society  be  highly  cultivated,  the  child  will  be  culti- 
vated also,  and  will  show,  more  or  less,  through  life, 
the  fruits  of  that  cultivation.  Hence  each  generation 
receives  the  benefit  of  the  cultivation  of  that  which 
preceded  it.  Not  in  knowledge  only,  but  in  develop- 
ment of  powers,  the  child  of  twelve  now  stands  at  the 
level  where  once  stood  the  child  of  fourteen ;  where, 
ages  ago,  stood  the  full-grown  man.  The  discipline 
of  manners,  of  temper,  of  thought,  of  feeling,  is  trans- 
mitted from  generation  to  generation ;  and,  at  each 
transmission,  there  is  an  imperceptible  but  unfaihng 
increase.  The  perpetual  accumulation  of  the  stores 
of  knowledge  is  so  much  more  visible  than  the  change 
in  the  other  ingredients  of  human  progress,  that  we 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD.  5 

are  apt  to  fancy  that  knowledge  grows,  and  knowlege 
only.  I  shall  not  stop  to  examine  whether  it  be  true 
(as  is  sometimes  maintained)  that  all  progress  in  hu- 
man society  is  but  the  effect  of  the  progress  of  knowl- 
edge :  for  the  present,  it  is  enough  to  point  out  that 
knowledge  is  not  the  only  possession  of  the  human 
spirit  in  which  progress  can  be  traced. 

We  may,  then,  rightly  speak  of  a  childhood,  a 
youth,  and  a  manhood  of  the  world.  The  men  of  the 
earliest  ages  were,  in  many  respects,  still  children,  as 
compared  with  ourselves,  with  all  the  blessings  and 
with  all  the  disadvantages  that  belong  to  childhood. 
We  reap  the  fruits  of  their  toil,  and  bear  in  our  char- 
acters the  impress  of  their  cultivation.  Our  charac- 
ters have  grown  out  of  their  history,  as  the  character 
of  the  man  grows  out  of  the  history  of  the  child. 
There  are  matters  in  which  the  simplicity  of  childhood 
is  wiser  than  the  maturity  of  manhood  ;  and  in  these 
they  were  wiser  than  we.  There  are  matters  in 
which  the  child  is  nothmg,  and  the  man  everything ; 
and  in  these  we  are  the  gainers.  And  the  process 
by  which  we  have  either  lost  or  gained,  corresponds, 
stage  by  stage,  with  the  process  by  which  the  in- 
fant is  trained  for  youth,  and  the  youth  for  man- 
hood. 

This  training  has  three  stages.  In  childhood,  we 
are  subject  to  positive  rules,  which  we  cannot  under- 
stand, but  are  bound  implicitly  to  obey.  In  youth, 
we  are  subject  to  the  influence  of  example  ;  and  soon 
break  loose  from  all  rules,  unless  illustrated  and  en- 
forced by  the  higher  teaching  which  example  imparts. 
In  manhood,  we  are  comparatively  free  from  external 
restraints  ;  and,  if  we  are  to  learn,  must  be  our  own 
instructors.     First  come  Rules,  then  Examples,  then 


6  THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

/  Principles.  First  comes  the  Law,  then  tlic  Son  of 
'  Man,  then  the  Gift  of  the  Spirit.  The  world  was 
'  once  a  child,  under  tutors  and  governors  until  the 
time  appointed  by  the  Father.  Then,  when  the  fit 
season  had  arrived,  the  Example,  to  which  all  ages 
should  turn,  was  sent  to  teach  men  what  they  ought 
to  be.  Then  the  human  race  was  left  to  itself,  to  be 
guided  by  the  teaching  of  the  Spirit  within. 

The  education  of  the  world,  like  that  of  the  child, 
begins  with  Law.  It  is  impossible  to  explain  the 
reasons  of  all  the  commands  that  you  give  to  a  child ; 
and  you  do  not  endeavor  to  do  so.  When  he  is  to  go 
to  bed  ;  when  he  is  to  get  up  ;  how  he  is  to  sit,  stand, 
eat,  drink ;  what  answers  he  is  to  make  when  spoken 
to  ;  what  he  may  touch,  and  what  he  may  not ;  what 
prayers  he  shall  say,  and  when  ;  what  lessons  he  is  to 
learn,  —  every  detail  of  manners  and  of  conduct  the 
careful  mother  teaches  her  child,  and  requires  implicit 
obedience.  Mingled  together  in  her  teaching  aro 
commands  of  the  most  trivial  character,  and  commands 
of  the  gravest  importance  ;  their  relative  value  marked 
by  a  difference  of  manner  rather  than  by  anything 
else,  since  to  explain  it  is  impossible.  Meanwhile,  to 
the  child,  obedience  is  the  highest  duty ;  affection 
the  highest  stimulus  ;  the  mother's  word  the  highest 
sanction.  The  conscience  is  alive  ;  but  it  is,  like  the 
other  faculties  at  that  age,  irregular,  undeveloped, 
easily  deceived.  The  mother  does  not  leave  it  uncul- 
tivated, nor  refuse  sometimes  to  explain  her  motives 
for  commanding  or  forbidding ;  but  she  never  thinks 
of  putting  the  judgment  of  the  child  against  her  own, 
nor  of  considering  the  child's  conscience  as  having  a 
right  to  free  action. 

As  the  child  grows   older,  the  education  changes 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD.  7 

its  character ;  not  so  much  in  regard  to  the  sanction 
of  its  precepts  as  in  regard  to  their  tenor.  More  stress 
is  laid  upon  matters  of  real  duty,  less  upon  matters 
of  mere  manner.  Falsehood,  quarrelling,  bad  temper, 
greediness,  indolence,  are  more  attended  to  than  times 
of  going  to  bed,  or  fashions  of  eating,  or  postures  in 
sitting.  The  boy  is  allowed  to  feel,  and  to  show  that 
he  feels,  the  difference  between  different  commands: 
but  he  is  still  not  left  to  himself;  and,  though  points 
of  manner  are  not  put  on  a  level  with  points  of  con- 
duct, they  are  by  no  means  neglected.  Moreover, 
while  much  stress  is  laid  upon  his  deeds,  little  is  laid 
upon  his  opinions :  he  is  rightly  supposed  not  to  have 
any,  and  will  not  be  allowed  to  plead  them  as  a  reason 
for  disobedience. 

After  a  time,  however,  the  intellect  begins  to  assert 
a  right  to  enter  into  all  questions  of  duty;  and  the 
intellect,  accordingly,  is  cultivated.  The  reason  is 
appealed  to  in  all  questions  of  conduct.  The  conse- 
quences of  folly  or  sin  are  pointed  out ;  and  the  pun- 
ishment which,  without  any  miracle,  God  invariably 
brings  upon  those  who  disobey  his  natural  laws: 
how,  for  instance,  falsehood  destroys  confidence,  and 
incurs  contempt ;  how  indulgence  in  appetite  tends  to 
brutal  and  degrading  habits ;  how  ill-temper  may  end 
in  crime,  and  must  end  in  mischief.  Thus  the  con- 
science is  reached  through  the  understanding. 

Now,  precisely  analogous  to  all  this  is  the  history  of 
the  education  of  the  early  world.  The  earliest  com- 
mands almost  entirely  refer  to  bodily  appetites  and 
animal  passions.  The  earliest  wide-spread  sin  was 
brutal  violence.  That  wilfulness  of  temper,  —  those 
germs  of  wanton  cruelty,  which  the  mother  corrects 
so  easily  in  her  .mfant,  were  developed,  in  the  earUest 


8  THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WOELD. 

form  of  human  society,  into  a  prevailing  plague  of 
wickedness.  The  few  notices  which  are  given  of  that 
state  of  mankind  do  not  present  a  picture  of  mere 
lawlessness,  such  as  we  find  among  the  mediaeval 
nations  of  Europe,  but  of  blind,  gross  ignorance  of 
themselves  and  all  around  them.  Atheism  is  possible 
now :  but  Lamech's  presumptuous  comparison  of  him- 
self with  God  is  impossible ;  and  the  thought  of 
building  a  tower  high  enough  to  escape  God's  wrath 
could  enter  no  man's  dreams.  We  sometimes  see  in 
very  little  children  a  violence  of  temper  which  seems 
hardly  human :  add  to  such  a  temper  the  strength  of 
a  full-grown  man,  and  we  shall  perhaps  understand 
what  is  meant  by  the  expression,  that  the  earth  was 
filled  with  violence. 

Violence  was  followed  by  sensuality.  Such  was 
the  sin  of  Noah,  Ham,  Sodom,  Lot's  daughters,  and 
the  guilty  Canaanites.  Animal  appetites  —  the  appe- 
tites which  must  be  subdued  in  childhood,  if  they  are 
to  be  subdued  at  all  —  were  still  the  temptation  of 
mankind.  Such  sins  are,  it  is  true,  prevalent  in  the 
world  even  now :  but  the  peculiarity  of  these  early 
forms  of  licentiousness  is  their  utter  disregard  of 
every  kind  of  restraint ;  and  this  constitutes  their 
childish  character. 

The  education  of  this  early  race  may  strictly  be 
said  to  begin  when  it  was  formed  into  the  various 
masses  out  of  which  the  nations  of  the  earth  have 
sprung.  The  world,  as  it  were,  went  to  school,  and 
was  broken  up  into  classes.  Before  that  time  it  can 
hardly  be  said  that  any  great  precepts  had  been  given. 
The  only  commands  which  claim  an  earlier  date  are 
the  prohibitions  of  murder  and  of  eating  blood ;  and 
these  may  be  considered  as  given  to  all  alike.     But 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WOKLD.  9 

the  whole  lesson  of  humanity  was  too  much  to  be 
learned  by  all  at  once.  Different  parts  of  it  fell  to 
the  task  of  different  parts  of  the  human  race ;  and 
for  a  long  time,  though  the  education  of  the  world 
flowed  in  parallel  channels,  it  did  not  form  a  single 
stream. 

The  Jewish  nation,  selected  among  all  as  the  depos- 
itary of  what  may  be  termed,  in  a  pre-eminent  sense, 
religious  truth,  received,  after  a  short  preparation,  the 
Mosaic  system.  This  system  is  a  mixture  of  moral 
and  positive  commands :  the  latter,  precise  and  par- 
ticular, ruling  the  customs,  the  festivals,  the  worship, 
the  daily  food,  the  dress,  the  very  touch ;  the  former, 
large,  clear,  simple,  peremptory.  There  is  very  little 
directly  spiritual.  No  freedom  of  conduct  or  of  opin- 
ion is  allowed.  The  difference  between  different  pre- 
cepts is  not  forgotten,  nor  is  all  natural  judgment  in 
morals  excluded  ;  but  the  reason  for  all  the  minute 
commands  is  never  given.  Why  they  may  eat  the 
sheep,  and  not  the  pig,  they  are  not  told.  The  com- 
mands are  not  confined  to  general  principles,  but  run 
into  such  details  as  to  forbid  tattooing  or  disfiguring 
the  person  ;  to  command  the  wearing  of  a  blue  fringe, 
and  the  like.  That  such  commands  should  be  sanc- 
tioned by  divine  authority  is  utterly  irreconcilable 
with  our  present  feelings ;  but  in  the  Mosaic  system 
the  same  peremptory  legislation  deals  with  all  these 
matters,  whether  important  or  trivial.  The  fact  is, 
that,  however  trivial  they  might  be  in  relation  to  the 
authority  which  they  invoked,  they  were  not  trivial 
in  relation  to  the  people  who  were  to  be  governed 
and  taught. 

The  teaching  of  the  law  was  followed  by  the  com- 
ments of  the  prophets.     It  is  impossible  to  mistake 


10  THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

the  complete  change  of  tone  and  spirit.  The  ordi- 
nances, indeed,  remain  ;  and  the  obhgation  to  observe 
them  is  always  assumed  :  but  they  have  sunk  to  the 
second  place.  The  national  attention  is  distinctly 
fixed  on  the  higher  precepts.  Disregard  of  the  ordi- 
nances is,  in  fact,  rarely  noticed,  in  comparison  with 
breaches  of  the  great  human  laws  of  love  and  broth- 
erly kindness,  of  truth  and  justice.  There  are  but 
two  sins  against  the  ceremonial  law  which  receive 
marked  attention,  —  idolatry  and  sabbath-breaking  ; 
and  these  do  not  occupy  a  third  of  the  space  devoted 
to  the  denunciation  of  cruelty  and  oppression,  of  mal- 
administration of  justice,  of  impurity  and  intemper- 
ance. Nor  is  the  change  confined  to  the  precepts 
enforced :  it  extends  to  the  sanction  which  enforces 
them.  Throughout  the  prophets,  there  is  an  evident 
reference  to  the  decision  of  individual  conscience 
which  can  rarely  be  found  in  the  books  of  Moses. 
Sometimes,  as  in  Ezekiel's  comment  on  the  Second 
Commandment,  a  distinct  appeal  is  made  from  the 
letter  of  the  law  to  the  voice  of  natural  equity ; 
sometimes,  as  in  the  openmg  of  Isaiah,  the  ceremo- 
nial sacrifices  are  condemned  for  the  sins  of  those  who 
offered  them  ;  or,  again,  fasting  is  spiritualized  into 
self-denial.  And  the  tone  taken  in  this  teaching  is 
such  as  to  imply  a  previous  breach,  not  so  much  of 
positive  commands  as  of  natural  morality.  It  is  as- 
sumed that  the  hearer  wiU  find  within  himself  a  suffi- 
cient sanction  for  the  precepts.  It  is  no  longer,  as  in 
the  law,  "I  am  the  Lord;"  but,  "Hath  not  he  showed 
thee,  0  man!  what  is  good?"  And  hence  the  style  be- 
comes argumentative,  instead  of  peremptory ;  and  the 
teacher  pleads,  instead  of  dogmatizing.  In  the  mean 
while,  however,  no  hint  is  ever  given  of  a  permission 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WOELD.         11 

to  dispense  with  the  ordinances,  even  in  the  least  de- 
gree. The  child  is  old  enough  to  understand,  but  not 
old  enough  to  be  left  to  himself.  He  is  not  yet  a  man. 
He  must  still  conform  to  the  rules  of  his  father's 
house,  whether  or  not  those  rules  suit  his  temper  or 
approve  themselves  to  his  judgment. 

The  comments  of  the  prophets  were  followed,  in 
their  turn,  by  the  great  lesson  of  the  captivity.  Then, 
for  the  first  time,  the  Jews  learned  what  that  law  and 
the  prophets  had  been  for  centuries  vainly  endeavor- 
ing to  teach  them ;  namely,  to  abandon  forever  poly- 
theism and  idolatry.  But,  though  this  change  in 
their  national  habits  and  character  is  unmistakable, 
it  might  seem,  at  first  sight,  as  if  it  were  no  more  than 
an  external  and  superficial  amendment ;  and  that  their 
growth  in  moral  and  spiritual  clearness,  though  trace- 
able with  certainty  up  to  this  date,  at  any  rate  re- 
ceived a  check  afterwards :  for  it  is  undeniable,  that, 
in  the  time  of  our  Lord,  the  Sadducees  had  lost  all 
depth  of  spiritual  feeling ;  while  the  Pharisees  had 
succeeded  in  converting  the  Mosaic  system  into  so 
mischievous  an  idolatry  of  forms,  that  St.  Paul  does 
not  hesitate  to  call  the  law  the  strength  of  sin.  But, 
in  spite  of  this,  it  is  nevertheless  clear,  that  even  the 
Pharisaic  teaching  contained  elements  of  a  more  spir- 
itual religion  than  the  original  Mosaic  system.  Thus, 
for  instance,  the  importance  attached  by  the  Pharisees 
to  prayer  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  law.  Tlie  worship 
under  the  law  consisted  almost  entirely  of  sacrifices. 
With  the  sacrifices  we  may  presume  that  prayer  was 
always  offered  ;  but  it  was  not  positively  commanded  : 
and,  as  a  regular  and  necessary  part  of  worship,  it 
first  appears  in  the  later  books  of  the  Old  Testament ; 
and  is  never,  eyen  there,  so  earnestly  insisted  upon 


12         THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

as  afterwards  by  the  Pharisees.  It  was,  in  fact,  in 
the  captivity,  far  from  the  temple  and  the  sacrifices 
of  the  temple,  that  the  Jewish  people  first  learned 
that  the  spiritual  part  of  worship  could  be  separated 
from  the  ceremonial,  and  that,  of  the  two,  the  spir- 
itual was  far  the  higher.  The  first  introduction  of 
preaching  and  the  reading  of  the  Bible  in  the  syna- 
gogues belong  to  the  same  date.  The  careful  study 
of  the  law,  though  it  degenerated  into  formality,  was 
yet  in  itself  a  more  intellectual  service  than  the 
earlier  records  exhibit ;  and  this  study  also,  though 
commencing  earlier,  attains  its  maximum  after  the 
captivity.  The  psalmists  who  delight  in  the  study 
of  the  law,  are  all,  or  nearly  all,  much  later  than  Da- 
vid ;  and  the  enthusiasm  with  which  the  study  is 
praised  increases  as  we  come  down.  In  short,  the 
Jewish  nation  had  lost  very  much  when  John  the  Bap- 
tist came  to  prepare  the  way  for  his  Master  ;  but  time 
had  not  stood  still,  nor  had  that  course  of  education 
whereby  the  Jew  was  to  be  fitted  to  give  the  last 
revelation  to  the  world. 

The  results  of  this  discipline  of  the  Jewish  nation 
may  be  summed  up  in  two  points,  —  a  settled  national 
belief  in  the  unity  and  spirituality  of  God,  and  an 
acknowledgment  of  the  paramount  importance  of 
chastity  as  a  point  of  morals. 

The  conviction  of  the  unity  and  spirituality  of  God 
was  peculiar  to  the  Jews  among  the  pioneers  of  civil- 
ization. Greek  philosophers  had,  no  doubt,  come  to 
the  same  conclusion  by  dint  of  reason.  Noble  minds 
may  often  have  been  enabled  to  raise  tliemselves  to 
the  same  height  in  moments  of  generous  emotion. 
But  every  one  knows  the  difference  between  an  opinion 
and  a  practical  conviction,  —  between  a  scientific  de- 


THE  EDUCATION   OF  THE  WORLD.  13 

duction  or  a  momentary  insight,  and  that  habit  which 
has  become  second  nature.  Every  one  also  knows 
the  difference  between  a  tenet  maintained  by  a  few 
intellectual  men  far  in  advance  of  their  age,  and  a 
belief  pervading  a  whole  people,  penetrating  all  their 
daily  life,  leavening  all  their  occupations,  incorporated 
into  their  very  language.  To  the  great  mass  of  the 
Gentiles,  at  the  time  of  our  Lord,  polytheism  was 
the  natural  posture  of  the  thoughts  into  which  their 
minds  unconsciously  settled  when  undisturbed  by 
doubt  or  difficulties.  To  every  Jew,  without  excep- 
tion, monotheism  was  equally  natural.  To  the  Gen- 
tile, even  when  converted,  it  was,  for  some  time,  still 
an  effort  to  abstain  from  idols  :  to  the  Jew,  it  was  no 
more  an  effort  than  it  is  to  us.  The  bent  of  the 
Jewish  mind  was,  in  fact,  so  fixed  by  their  previous 
training,  that  it  would  have  required  a  perpetual  and 
difficult  strain  to  enable  a  Jew  to  join  in  such  folly. 
We  do  not  readily  realize  how  hard  this  was  to  ac- 
quire, because  we  have  never  had  to  acquire  it ;  and, 
in  reading  the  Old  Testament,  we  look  on  the  repeated 
idolatries  of  the  chosen  people  as  wilful  backslidings 
from  an  elementary  truth  witliin  the  reach  of  children, 
rather  than  as  stumblings  in  learning  a  very  difficult 
lesson,  —  difficult  even  for  cultivated  men.  In  reality, 
elementary  truths  are  the  hardest  of  all  to  learn,  un- 
less we  pass  our  childhood  in  an  atmosphere  thor- 
oughly impregnated  with  them  ;  and  then  we  imbibe 
them  unconsciously,  and  find  it  difficult  to  perceive 
their  difficulty. 

It  was  the  fact  that  this  belief  was  not  the  tenet  of 
the  few,  but  the  habit  of  the  nation,  which  made  the 
Jews  the  proper  instruments  for  communicating  the 
doctrine  to   the. world.     They  supported  it,  not  by 


14  THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

arguments,  —  which  always  provoke  rephes,  and  rare- 
ly, at  the  best,  penetrate  deeper  than  the  intellect,  — 
but  by  the  unconscious  evidence  of  their  lives.  They 
supplied  that  spiritual  atmosphere  in  which  alone  the 
faith  of  new  converts  could  attain  to  vigorous  life. 
They  supplied  forms  of  language  and  expression  fit 
for  immediate  and  constant  use.  They  supplied  devo- 
tions to  fill  the  void  which  departed  idolatry  left  be- 
hind. The  rapid  spread  of  the  Primitive  Church,  and 
the  depth  to  which  it  struck  its  roots  into  the  decaying 
society  of  the  Koman  Empire,  are  unquestionably  due, 
to  a  great  extent,  to  the  body  of  Jewish  proselytes 
already  established  in  every  important  city,  and  to 
the  existence  of  the  Old  Testament  as  a  ready-made 
text-book  of  devotion  and  instruction. 

Side  by  side  with  this  freedom  from  idolatry,  there 
had  grown  up  in  the  Jewish  mind  a  chaster  morality 
than  was  to  be  found  elsewhere  in  the  world.  There 
were  many  points,  undoubtedly,  in  which  the  early 
morality  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  would  well  bear 
a  comparison  with  that  of  the  Hebrews.  In  simpli- 
city of  life,  in  gentleness  of  character,  in  warmth  of 
sympathy,  in  kindness  to  the  poor,  in  justice  to  all 
men,  the  Hebrews  could  not  have  rivalled  the  best 
days  of  Greece.  In  reverence  for  law,  in  reality  of 
obedience,  in  calmness  under  trouble,  in  dignity 
of  self-respect,  they  could  not  have  rivalled  the  best 
days  of  Rome.  But  the  sins  of  the  flesh  corrupted 
both  these  races,  and  the  flower  of  their  finest  virtues 
had  withered  before  the  time  of  our  Lord.  In  chastity 
the  Hebrews  stood  alone ;  and  this  virtue,  which  had 
grown  up  with  them  from  their  earliest  days,  was 
still  in  the  vigor  of  fresh  life  when  they  were  com- 
missioned to  give  the  gospel  to  the  nations.    The  He- 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WOELD.         15 

brew  morality  has  passed  into  the  Christian  Church, 
and  sins  of  impurity  (which  war  against  the  soul) 
have  ever  since  been  looked  on  as  the  type  of  all 
evil ;  and  our  Litany  selects  them  as  the  example  of 
deadly  sin.  What  sort  of  morality  the  Gentiles  would 
have  handed  down  to  us,  had  they  been  left  to  them- 
selves, is  clear  from  the  Epistles.  The  excesses  of  the 
Gentile  party  at  Corinth  (1  Cor.  v.  2),  the  first  warn- 
ing given  to  the  Thessalonians  (1  Thess.  iv.  3),  the 
first  warning  given  to  the  Galatians  (Gal.  v.  19), 
the  description  of  the  Gentile  world  in  the  Epistle  to 
the  Romans,  are  sufficient  indications  of  the  prevail- 
ing Gentile  sin.  But  St.  James,  writing  to  the  He- 
brew Christians,  says  not  a  word  upon  the  subject ; 
and  St.  Peter  barely  alludes  to  it. 

The  idea  of  monotheism  and  the  principle  of  purity 
might  seem  hardly  enough  to  be  the  chief  results  of 
so  systematic  a  discipline  as  that  of  the  Hebrews  ; 
but,  in  reality,  they  are  the  cardinal  points  in  educa- 
tion. The  idea  of  monotheism  out-tops  all  other  ideas 
in  dignity  and  worth.  The  spirituality  of  God  in- 
volves in  it  the  supremacy  of  conscience,  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul,  the  final  judgment  of  the  human 
race  ;  for  we  know  the  other  world,  and  can  only  know 
it,  by  analogy,  drawn  from  our  own  experience.  With 
what,  then,  shall  we  compare  God  ?  With  the  spirit- 
ual or  the  fleshly  part  of  our  nature  ?  On  the  answer 
depends  the  whole  bent  of  our  religion  and  of  our 
morality  ;  for  that  in  ourselves  which  we  choose  as 
the  nearest  analogy  of  God,  will,  of  course,  be  looked 
on  as  the  ruling  and  lasting  part  of  our  being.  If  he 
be  one  and  spiritual,  then  the  spiritual  power  within 
us,  which  proclaims  its  own  unity  and  independence 
of  matter  by  thQ  universaUty  of  its  decrees,  must  be 


16  THE  EDUCATION  OF  TIIE  WORLD. 

the  rightful  monarch  of  our  lives  ;  but  if  there  be 
Gods  many  and  Lords  many,  with  bodily  appetites 
and  animal  passions,  then  the  voice  of  conscience  is 
but  one  of  those  wide-spread  delusions,  which,  some 
for  a  longer,  some  for  a  shorter  period,  have,  before 
now,  misled  our  race.  Again :  the  same  importance 
which  we  assign  to  monotheism  as  a  creed,  we  must 
assign  to  chastity  as  a  virtue.  Among  all  the  vices 
which  it  is  necessary  to  subdue  in  order  to  build  up 
the  human  character,  there  is  none  to  be  compared, 
in  strength  or  in  virulence,  with  that  of  impurity.  It 
can  outlive  and  kill  a  thousand  virtues  ;  it  can  corrupt 
the  most  generous  heart ;  it  can  madden  the  soberest 
intellect ;  it  can  debase  the  loftiest  imagination.  But, 
besides  being  so  poisonous  in  character,  it  is,  above 
all  others,  most  difficult  to  conquer  ;  and  the  people 
whose  extraordinary  toughness  of  nature  has  enabled 
it  to  outlive  Egyptian  Pharaohs,  and  Assyrian  kings, 
and  Eoman  Csesars,  and  Mussulman  caliphs,  was  well 
matched  against  a  power  of  evil  which  has  battled 
with  the  human  spirit  ever  since  tlie  creation,  and  has 
inflicted,  and  may  yet  inflict,  more  deadly  blows  than 
any  other  power  we  know  of. 

Such  was  the  training  of  the  Hebrews.  Other  na- 
tions, meanwhile,  had  a  training  parallel  to,  and  con- 
temporaneous with,  theirs.  The  natural  religions  — 
shadows  projected  by  the  spiritual  light  within  shin- 
ing on  the  dark  problems  without  —  were  all,  in 
reality,  systems  of  law,  given  also  by  God,  though 
not  given  by  revelation,  but  by  the  working  of  nature, 
and  consequently  so  distorted  and  adulterated,  that, 
in  lapse  of  time,  the  divine  clement  in  them  had 
almost  perished.  The  poetical  gods  of  Greece,  the 
legendary  gods  of  Eome,  the  animal-worship  of  Egypt, 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD.        17 

the  sun-worship  of  the  East,  all  accompanied  by  sys- 
tems of  law  and  civil  gorernment  springing  from  the  { 
same  sources  as  themselves,  —  namely,  the  character 
and  temper  of  the  several  nations,  —  were  the  means 
of  educating  these  people  to  similar  purposes,  in  the 
economy  of  Providence,  to  that  for  which  the  Hebrews 
were  destined. 

When  the  seed  of  the  gospel  was  first  sown,  the 
field  which  had  been  i3repared  to  receive  it  may  be 
divided  into  four  chief  divisions,  —  Rome,  Greece, 
Asia,  and  Juda3a.  Each  of  these  contributed  some- 
thing to  the  growth  of  the  future  church.  And  the 
growth  of  the  church  is,  in  this  case,  the  developmentr 
of  the  human  race.  It  cannot,  indeed,  yet  be  said 
that  all  humanity  has  united  into  one  stream  ;  but  the 
Christian  nations  have  so  unquestionably  taken  the 
lead  amongst  their  fellows,  that,  although  it  is  likely 
enough  the  unconverted  peoples  may  have  a  real  part 
to  play,  that  part  must  be  plainly  quite  subordinate, 
—  subordinate  in  a  sense  in  which  neither  Rome  nor 
Greece,  nor  perhaps  even  Asia,  was  subordinate  to 
Judaea. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  trace  the  chief  elements  of 
civilization  which  we  owe  to  each  of  the  four.  Rome 
contributed  her  admirable  spirit  of  order  and  organi- 
zation. To  her  had  been  given  the  genius  of  govern- 
ment. She  had  been  trained  to  it  by  centuries  of 
difficult  and  tumultuous  history.  Storms  which  would 
have  rent  asunder  the  framework  of  any  other  polity 
only  practised  her  in  the  art  of  controlling  popular 
passions  ;  and  when  she  began  to  aim  consciously 
at  the  empire  of  the  world,  she  had  already  learned 
her  lesson.  She  had  learned  it,  as  the  Hebrews  had 
learned  theirs,  by  an  enforced  obedience  to  her  own 


18  THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

system.  In  no  nation  of  antiquity  had  civil  officers 
the  same  unquestioned  authority  during  their  term  of 
office,  or  laws  and  judicial  rules  the  same  reverence. 
That  which  religion  was  to  the  Jew,  including  even 
the  formalism  wliich  incrusted  and  fettered  it,  law 
was  to  the  Roman  ;  and  law  was  the  lesson  which 
Rome  was  intended  to  teach  the  world.  Hence  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  soon  became  the  head  of  the  church. 
Rome  was,  in  fact,  the  centre  of  the  traditions  which 
had  once  governed  the  world  ;  and  their  spirit  still 
remamed  ;  and  the  Roman  Church  developed  into  the 
papacy,  simply  because  a  head  was  wanted,  and  no 
better  one  could  be  found.  Hence  again,  in  all  the 
doctrinal  disputes  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries 
the  decisive  voice  came  from  Rome.  Every  contro- 
versy was  finally  settled  by  her  opinion  ;  because  she 
alone  possessed  the  art  of  framing  formulas  which 
could  hold  together,  in  any  reasonable  measure,  the 
endless  variety  of  sentiments  and  feelings  which  the 
church  by  that  time  comprised.  It  was  this  power 
of  administering  law  which  enabled  the  Western 
Church,  in  the  time  of  Charlemagne,  to  undertake, 
by  means  of  her  bishops,  the  task  of  training  and 
civilizing  the  new  population  of  Europe.  To  Rome 
we  owe  the  forms  of  local  government  which  in 
England  have  saved  liberty,  and  elsewhere  have  miti- 
gated despotism.  Justinian's  laws  have  penetrated 
into  all  modern  legislation,  and  almost  all  improve- 
ments bring  us  only  nearer  to  his  code.  Much  of  the 
spirit  of  modern  politics  came  from  Greece  ;  much 
from  the  woods  of  Germany  :  but  the  skeleton  and 
framework  is  almost  entirely  Roman.  And  it  is 
not  this  framework  only  that  comes  from  Rome  : 
the  moral  sentiments  and  the  moral  force,  wliich  lio 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD.        19 

at  tlie  back  of  all  political  life,  and  are  absolutely 
iu dispensable  to  its  vigor,  are,  in  great  measure, 
Roman  too.  It  is  true  that  the  life  and  power  of 
all  morality  whatever  will  always  be  drawn  from  the 
New  Testament  ;  yet  it  is  in  the  history  of  Rome, 
rather  than  in  the  Bible,  that  we  find  our  models  and 
precepts  of  political  duty,  and  especially  of  the  duty 
of  patriotism.  St.  Paul  bids  us  follow  whatsoever 
things  are  lovely,  whatsoever  things  are  of  good 
report.  But,  except  through  such  general  appeals 
to  natural  feeling,  it  would  be  difficult  to  prove  from 
the  New  Testament  that  cowardice  was  not  only  dis- 
graceful, but  sinful,  and  that  love  of  our  country  was 
an  exalted  duty  of  humanity.  That  lesson  our  con- 
sciences have  learnt  from  the  teaching  of  ancient 
Rome. 

To  Greece  was  intrusted  the  cultivation  of  the 
reason  and  the  taste.  Her  gift  to  mankind  has  been 
science  and  art.  There  was  little  in  her  temper  of 
the  spirit  of  reverence.  Her  morality  and  her  re- 
ligion did  not  spring  from  the  conscience.  Her  gods 
were  the  creatures  of  imagination,  not  of  spiritual 
need.  Her  highest  idea  was,  not  holiness,  as  with  the 
Hebrews  ;  nor  law,  as  with  the  Romans ;  but  beauty. 
Even  Aristotle,  who  assuredly  gave  way  to  mere  sen- 
timent as  little  as  any  Greek  that  ever  lived,  placed 
the  Beautiful  (ro  koXov)  at  the  head  of  his  moral  sys- 
tem, not  the  Right  nor  the  Holy.  Greece,  in  fact, 
was  not  looking  at  another  world,  nor  even  striving 
to  organize  the  present,  but  rather  aiming  at  the 
development  of  free  nature.  The  highest  possible 
cultivation  of  the  individual,  the  most  finished  per- 
fection of  the  natural  faculties,  was  her  dream.  It  is 
true  that  her  philosophers  are  ever  talking  of  subor- 


20  THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

dinating  the  individual  to  the  State  ;  but,  in  reality, 
there  never  has  been  a  period  in  history,  nor  a  country 
in  the  world,  in  which  tlie  peculiarities  of  individual 
temper  and  character  had  freer  play.  This  is  not  the 
best  atmosphere  for  political  action  ;  but  it  is  better 
than  any  other  for  giving  vigor  and  life  to  the  im- 
pulses of  genius,  and  for  cultivating  those  faculties 
—  the  reason  and  taste  —  in  which  the  highest  genius 
can  be  shown.  Such  a  cultivation  needs  discipline 
less  than  any  ;  and  of  all  the  nations,  Greece  had 
the  least  of  systematic  discipline,  least  of  instinctive 
deference  to  any  one  leading  idea.  But,  for  the  same 
reason,  the  cultivation  required  less  time  than  any 
other ;  and  the  national  life  of  Greece  is  the  shortest 
of  all.  Greek  history  hardly  begins  before  Solon,  and 
it  hardly  continues  after  Alexander  ;  barely  covering 
two  hundred  years.  But  its  fruits  are  eternal.  To 
the  Greeks  we  owe  the  logic  which  has  ruled  the 
minds  of  all  thinkers  since.  All  our  natural  and 
physical  science  really  begins  with  the  Greeks  ;  and, 
indeed,  would  have  been  impossible  had  not  Greece 
taught  men  how  to  reason.  To  the  Greeks  we  owe 
the  corrective  which  conscience  needs  to  borrow 
from  nature.  Conscience,  startled  at  the  awful  truths 
which  she  has  to  reveal,  too  often  threatens  to  with- 
draw the  soul  into  gloomy  and  perverse  asceticism : 
then  is  needed  the  beauty  which  Greece  taught  us 
to  admire,  to  show  us  anotlier  aspect  of  the  Divine 
Attributes.  To  the  Greeks  we  owe  all  modern  litera- 
ture ;  for  though  there  is  other  literature  even  older 
than  the  Greek,  —  the  Asiatic,  for  instance,  and  the 
Hebrew,  —  yet  we  did  not  learn  this  lesson  from 
them  :  they  had  not  the  genial  life  which  was  needed 
to  kindle  other  nations  with  the  communication  of 
their  own  fire. 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD.        21 

The  discipline  of  Asia  was  the  never-ending  suc- 
cession of  conquering  dynasties,  following  in  each 
other's  track  like  waves,  —  an  ever-moving  yet  never- 
advancing  ocean.  Cycles  of  change  were  succes- 
sively passing  over  her  ;  and  yet  at  the  end  of  every 
cycle  she  stood  where  she  had  stood  before,  and 
nearly  where  she  stands  now.  The  growth  of  Europe 
has  dwarfed  her  in  comparison,  and  she  is  paralyzed 
in  presence  of  a  gigantic  strength,  younger  but 
mightier  than  her  own.  But  in  herself  she  is  no 
weaker  than  she  ever  was.  The  monarchs  who  once 
led  Assyrian  or  Babylonian  or  Persian  armies  across 
half  the  world  impose  on  us  by  the  vast  extent  and 
rapidity  of  their  conquests  ;  but  these  conquests  had 
in  reality  no  substance,  no  inherent  strength.  This 
perpetual  baffling  of  all  earthly  progress  taught  Asia 
to  seek  her  inspiration  in  rest.  She  learned  to  fix 
her  thoughts  upon  another  world,  and  was  disciplined 
to  check  by  her  silent  protest  the  over-earthly,  over- 
practical  tendency  of  the  Western  nations.  She  was 
ever  the  one  to  refuse  to  measure  heaven  by  the 
standard  of  earth.  Her  teeming  imagination  filled 
the  church  with  thoughts  "  undreamt  of  in  our 
philosophy."  She  had  been  the  instrument  selected 
to  teach  the  Hebrews  the  doctrine  of  the  immortality 
of  the  soul ;  for,  whatever  may  be  said  of  the  early 
notions  on  this  subject,  it  is  unquestionable,  that  in 
Babylon  the  Jews  first  attained  the  clearness  and  cer- 
tainty in  regard  to  it  which  we  find  in  the  teachmg 
of  the  Pharisees.  So  again,  Athanasius,  a  thorough 
Asiatic  in  sentiment  and  in  mode  of  arguing,  was  the 
bulwark  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  The  Western 
nations  are  always  tempted  to  make  reason  not  only 
supreme,  but  despotic  ;   and   dislike  to  acknowledge 


$2  THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

mysteries  even  in  religion.  They  are  inclined  to  con- 
fine all  doctrines  witliin  the  limits  of  spiritual  utility, 
and  to  refuse  to  listen  to  dim  voices  and  whispers 
from  within,  —  those  instincts  of  doubt  and  reverence 
and  awe,  —  which  yet  are,  in  their  place  and  degree, 
messages  from  the  depths  of  our  being.  Asia  supplies 
the  corrective  by  perpetually  leaning  to  the  mysteri- 
ous. When  left  to  herself,  she  settles  down  to  base- 
less dreams,  and  sometimes  to  monstrous  and  revolting 
fictions  ;  but  her  influence  has  never  ceased  to  be  felt, 
and  could  not  be  lost  without  serious  damage. 

Thus  the  Hebrews  may  be  said  to  have  disci- 
plined the  human  conscience  ;  Rome,  the  human  will; 
Greece,  the  reason  and  taste  ;  Asia,  the  spiritual  imag- 
ination. Other  races  that  have  been  since  admitted 
into  Christendom  also  did  their  parts,  and  others 
may  yet  have  something  to  contribute  ;  for,  though 
the  time  for  discipline  is  childhood,  yet  there  is  no 
precise  line  beyond  which  all  discipline  ceases.  Even 
the  gray-haired  man  has  yet  some  small  capacity  for 
learning  like  a  child  ;  and,  even  in  the  maturity  of 
the  world,  the  early  modes  of  teaching  may  yet  find 
a  place.  But  the  childhood  of  the  world  was  over 
when  our  Lord  appeared  on  earth.  The  tutors  and 
governors  had  done  their  work.  It  was  time  that  the 
second  teacher  of  the  human  race  should  begin  his 
labor.     The  second  teacher  is  Example. 

The  child  is  not  insensible  to  the  influence  of 
example.  Even  in  the  e  rliest  years,  the  manners, 
the  language,  the  principles,  of  the  elder  begin  to 
mould  the  character  of  the  younger.  There  are  not  a 
few  of  our  acquirements  which  we  learn  by  example, 
without  any,  or  with  very  little,  direct  instruction  ;  as, 
for  instance,  to  speak  and  to  walk.     But  still  example 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD.         23 

at  that  age  is  secondary.  The  child  is  quite  con- 
scious that  he  is  not  on  such  an  equality  with  grown- 
up friends  as  to  enable  him  to  do  as  they  do.  He 
imitates,  but  he  knows  that  it  is  merely  play  ;  and  he 
is  quite  willing  to  be  told  that  he  must  not  do  this  or 
that  till  he  is  older.  As  time  goes  on,  and  the  faculties 
expand,  the  power  of  discipline  to  guide  the  actions 
and  to  mould  the  character  decreases  ;  and,  in  the  same 
proportion,  the  power  of  example  grows.  The  moral 
atmosphere  must  be  brutish  indeed  which  can  do 
deep  harm  to  a  child  of  four  years.  But*  what  is 
harmless  at  four  is  pernicious  at  six,  and  almost  fatal 
at  twelve.  The  religious  tone  of  a  household  will 
hardly  make  much  impression  on  an  infant ;  but  it 
will  deeply  engrave  its  lessons  on  the  heart  of  a  boy 
growing  towards  manhood.  Different  faculties  within 
us  begin  to  feel  the  power  of  this  new  guide  at  dif- 
ferent times.  The  moral  sentiments  are  perhaps  the 
first  to  expand  to  the  influence  ;  but  gradually  the 
example  of  those  among  whom  the  life  is  cast  lays 
hold  of  all  the  soul,  —  of  the  tastes,  of  the  opinions,  of 
the  aims,  of  the  temper.  As  each  restraint  of  dis- 
cipline is  successively  cast  off,  the  soul  does  not  gain 
at  first  a  real,  but  only  an  apparent  freedom.  The 
youth  when  too  old  for  discipline  is  not  yet  strong 
enough  to  guide  his  life  by  fixed  principles.  He  is 
led  by  his  emotions  and  impulses.  He  admires  and 
loves,  he  condemns  and  dislikes,  with  enthusiasm ; 
and  his  love  and  admiration,  his  disapproval  and 
dislike,  are  not  his  own,  but  borrowed  from  his 
society.  He  can  appreciate  a  character,  though  he 
cannot  yet  appreciate  a  principle.  He  cannot  walk 
by  reason  and  conscience  alone  :  he  still  needs  those 
"  supplies  to  the  imperfection  of  our  nature  "  which 


24         THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

are  given  by  the  higher  passions.  He  cannot  follow 
what  his  heart  does  not  love  as  well  as  his  reason 
approve  ;  and  he  cannot  love  what  is  presented  to 
him  as  an  abstract  rule  of  life,  but  requires  a  living 
person.  He  needs  to  see  Virtue  in  the  concrete, 
before  he  can  recognize  her  aspect  as  a  divine  idea. 
He  instinctively  copies  those  whom  he  admires  ;  and 
in  doing  so  imbibes  whatever  gives  the  color  to  their 
character.  He  repeats  opinions  without  really  under- 
standing them;  and  in  that  way  admits  their  infec- 
tion into  his  judgment.  He  acquires  habits  which 
seem  of  no  consequence,  but  which  are  the  channels 
of  a  thousand  new  impulses  to  his  soul.  If  he  reads, 
he  treats  the  characters  that  he  meets  with  in  his  book 
as  friends  or  enemies  ;  and  so,  unconsciously,  allows 
them  to  mould  his  soul.  When  he  seems  most  in- 
dependent, most  defiant  of  external  guidance,  he  is, 
in  reality,  only  so  much  the  less  master  of  himself; 
only  so  much  the  more  guided  and  formed,  not  indeed 
by  the  will,  but  by  the  example  and  sympathy  of 
others. 

The  power  of  example  probably  never  ceases  during 
life.  Even  old  age  is  not  wholly  uninfluenced  by 
society ;  and  a  change  of  companions  acts  upon  the 
character  long  after  the  character  would  appear  in- 
capable of  -further  development.  The  influence,  in 
fact,  dies  out  just  as  it  grew ;  and  as  it  is  impossible 
to  mark  its  beginning,  so  is  it  to  mark  its  end.  The 
child  is  governed  by  the  will  of  its  parents ;  the  man, 
by  principles  and  habits  of  his  own.  But  neither 
is  insensible  to  the  influence  of  associates,  though 
neither  finds  in  that  influence  the  predominant  power 
of  his  life. 

This,  then,  which  is  born  with  our  birth  and  dies 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD.         25 

with  our  death,  attains  its  maximum  at  some  point  in 
the  passage  from  one  to  the  other  ;  and  this  point  is 
just  the  meeting-point  of  the  child  and  the  man, — 
the  brief  interval  which  separates  restraint  from 
liberty.  Young  men  at  this  period  are  learning  a 
peculiar  lesson.  They  seem  to  those  who  talk  to 
them  to  be  imbibing,  from  their  associates  and  their 
studies,  principles  both  of  faith  and  conduct ;  but  the 
rapid  fluctuations  of  their  minds  show  that  their 
opinions  have  not  really  the  nature  of  principles. 
They  are  really  learning,  not  principles,  but  the  ma- 
terials out  of  which  principles  are  made.  They  drink 
in  the  lessons  of  generous  impulse,  warm  unselfish- 
ness, courage,  self-devotion,  romantic  disregard  of 
worldly  calculations,  without  knowing  what  are  the 
grounds  of  their  own  approbation,  or  caring  to  ana- 
lyze the  laws  and  ascertain  the  limits  of  such  guides 
of  conduct.  They  believe  without  exact  attention 
to  the  evidence  of  their  belief;  and  their  opinions 
have  accordingly  the  richness  and  warmth  that  be- 
longs to  sentiment,  but  not  the  clearness  or  firmness 
that  can  be  given  by  reason.  These  affections,  which 
are  now  kindled  in  their  hearts  by  the  contact  of 
their  fellows,  will  afterwards  be  the  reservoir  of  life 
and  light  with  which  their  faith  and  their  highest 
conceptions  will  be  animated  and  colored.  The  opin- 
ions now  picked  up,  apparently  not  really,  at  random, 
must  hereafter  give  reality  to  the  clearer  and  more 
settled  convictions  of  mature  manhood.  If  it  were 
not  for  these,  the  ideas  and  laws  afterwards  supphed 
by  reason  would  be  empty  forms  of  thought,  without 
body  or  substance ;  the  faith  would  run  a  risk  of 
being  the  form  of  godliness,  without  the  power  there- 
of.    And  hence  the  lessons   of  this  time  have   such 


26         THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WOELD. 

an  attractiveness  in  their  warmtli  and  life  tliat  they 
are  very  rehictantly  exchanged  for  the  truer  and  pro- 
founder,  but,  at  first  sight,  colder  wisdom  which  is 
destined  to  follow  them.  To  almost  all  men,  this 
period  is  a  bright  spot,  to  which  the  memory  ever 
afterward  loves  to  recur ;  and  even  those  who  can 
remember  nothing  but  folly,  —  folly,  too,  which  they 
have  repented  and  relinquished,  —  yet  find  a  name- 
less charm  in  recalling  such  folly  as  that.  For,  indeed, 
even  folly  itself,  at  this  age,  is  sometimes  the  cup  out 
of  which  men  quaff  the  richest  blessings  of  our  na- 
ture,—  simplicity,  generosity,  affection.  This  is  the 
seed-time  of  the  soul's  harvest,  and  contains  the  prom- 
ise of  the  year :  it  is  the  time  for  love  and  marriage, 
the  time  for  forming  life-long  friendships.  The  after- 
life may  be  more  contented,  but  can  rarely  be  so  glad 
and  joyous.  Two  things  we  need  to  crown  its  bless- 
ings ;  one  is,  that  the  friends  whom  we  then  learn  to 
love,  and  the  opinions  which  we  then  learn  to  cherish, 
may  stand  the  test  of  time,  and  deserve  the  esteem 
and  approval  of  calmer  thoughts  and  wider  experi- 
ence ;  the  other,  that  our  hearts  may  have  depth 
enough  to  drink  largely  of  that  which  God  is  holding 
to  our  lips,  and  never  again  to  lose  the  fire  and  spirit 
of  the  draught.  There  is  nothing  more  beautiful  than 
a  manhood  surrounded  by  the  friends,  upholding  the 
principles,  and  filled  with  the  energy  of  the  spring- 
time of  life.  But  even  if  these  highest  blessings  be 
denied, — if  we  have  been  compelled  to  change  opin- 
ions and  to  give  up  friends,  and  the  cold  experience  of 
the  world  has  extinguished  the  heat  of  youth,  —  still 
the  heart  will  instinctively  recur  to  that  happy  time, 
to  explain  to  itself  what  is  meant  by  love,  and  what 
by  happiness. 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WOELD.         27 

Of  course  this  is  only  one  side  of  the  picture.  This 
keen  susceptibility  to  pleasure  and  joy  implies  a  keen 
susceptibility  to  pain.  There  is  probably  no  time  of 
life  at  which  pains  are  more  intensely  felt ;  no  time  at 
which  the  whole  man  more  "  groaneth  and  travaileth 
in  pain  together.''  Young  men  are  prone  to  extreme 
melancholy,  —  even  to  disgust  with  life.  A  young 
preacher  will  preach  upon  afflictions  much  more  often 
than  an  old  one  ;  a  young  poet  will  write  more  sadly  ; 
a  young  philosopher  will  moralize  more  gloomily. 
And  this  seems  unreal  sentiment,  and  is  smiled  at  in 
after-years ;  but  it  is  real  at  the  time,  and  perhaps  is 
nearer  the  truth  at  all  times  than  the  contentedness 
of  those  who  ridicule  it.  Youth,  in  fact,  feels  every- 
thing more  keenly ;  and,  as  far  as  the  keenness  of  feel- 
ing contributes  to  its  truth,  the  feeling,  whether  it  is 
pain  or  pleasure,  is  so  much  the  truer.  But,  in  after- 
life, it  is  the  happiness,  not  the  suffering  of  youth  that 
most  often  returns  to  the  memory,  and  seems  to  gild 
all  the  past. 

The  period  of  youth  in  the  history  of  the  world 
—  when  the  human  race  was,  as  it  were,  put  under 
the  teaching  of  example  —  corresponds,  of  course,  to 
the  meeting-point  of  the  Law  and  the  Gospel.  The 
second  stage,  therefore,  in  the  education  of  man,  was 
the  presence  of  our  Lord  upon  earth.  Those  few 
years  of  his  divine  presence  seem,  as  it  were,  to  bal- 
ance all  the  systems  and  creeds  and  worships  which 
preceded,  all  the  Church's  life  which  has  followed 
since.  Saints  had  gone  before,  and  saints  have  been 
given  since ;  great  men  and  good  men  had  lived 
among  the  heathen ;  there  were  never,  at  any  time, 
examples  wanting  to  teach  either  the  chosen  people 
or  any  other.     B.ut  the  one  Examj^le  of  all  examples 


28         THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

came  in  the  "  fulness  of  time,"  just  when  the  world 
was  fitted  to  feel  the  power  of  his  presence.  Had 
his  revelation  been  delayed  until  now,  assuredly  it 
would  have  been  hard  for  us  to  recognize  his  divinity  ; 
for  the  faculty  of  Faith  has  turned  inwards,  and  can- 
not now  accept  any  outer  manifestations  of  the  truth 
of  God.  Our  vision  of  the  Son  of  God  is  now  aided 
by  the  eyes  of  the  apostles ;  and  by  that  aid  we  can 
recognize  the  express  image  of  the  Father.  But  in 
this  we  are  like  men  who  are  led  through  unknown 
woods  by  Indian  guides,  —  we  recognize  the  indica- 
tions by  which  the  path  was  known,  as  soon  as  those 
indications  are  pointed  out ;  but  we  feel  that  it  would 
have  been  quite  vain  for  us  to  look  for  them  unaided. 
We  of  course  have,  in  our  turn,  counterbalancing 
advantages.  If  we  have  lost  that  freshness  of  faith 
which  would  be  the  first  to  say  to  a  poor  carpenter, 
"  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God," 
yet  we  possess,  in  the  greater  cultivation  of  our  relig- 
ious understanding,  that  which,  perhaps,  we  ought 
not  to  be  willing  to  give  in  exchange.  The  early 
Christians  could  recognize  more  readily  than  we  the 
greatness  and  beauty  of  the  Example  set  before 
them  ;  but  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  that  we  know 
better  than  they  the  precise  outlines  of  the  truth. 
To  every  age  is  given  by  God  its  own  proper  gift. 
They  had  not  the  same  clearness  of  understanding  as 
we ;  the  same  recognition,  that  it  is  God,  and  not  the 
Devil,  who  rules  the  world ;  the  same  power  of  dis- 
crimination between  different  kinds  of  truth.  They 
had  not  the  same  calmness,  or  fixedness  of  conduct ; 
their  faith  was  not  so  quiet,  so  little  tempted  to 
restless  vehemence ;  but  they  had  a  keenness  of 
perception  which  we  have   not,  and   could  see   the 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WOELD.         29 

immeasurable  difference  between  our  Lord  and  all 
other  men  as  we  could  never  have  seen  it.  Had  our 
Lord  come  later,  he  would  have  come  to  mankind 
already  beginning  to  stiffen  into  the  fixedness  of  ma- 
turity. The  power  of  his  life  would  not  have  sunk 
so  deeply  into  the  world's  heart ;  the  truth  of  his 
divine  nature  would  not  have  been  recognized ;  see- 
ing the  Lord  would  not  have  been  the  title  to  apos- 
tleship. 

On  the  other  hand,  had  our  Lord  come  earlier,  tlie 
world  would  not  have  been  ready  to  receive  him ; 
and  the  gospel,  instead  of  being  the  religion  of  the 
human  race,  would  have  been  the  religion  of  the  He- 
brews only.  The  other  systems  would  have  been  too 
strong  to  be  overthrown  by  the  power  of  preaching. 
The  need  of  a  higher  and  purer  teaching  would  not 
have  been  felt  ;  Christ  would  have  seemed  to  the 
Gentiles  the  Jewish  Messiah,  not  the  Son  of  man. 
But  he  came  in  the  "  fulness  of  time,"  for  which  all 
history  had  been  preparing,  to  which  all  history  since 
has  been  looking  back.  Hence  the  first  and  largest 
place  in  the  New  Testament  is  assigned  to  his  life 
four  times  told.  This  life  we  emphatically  call  the 
Gospel.  If  there  is  little  herein  to  be  technically  i 
called  doctrine,  yet  here  is  the  fountain  of  all  inspira- 
tion. There  is  no  Christian  who  would  not  rather 
part  with  all  the  rest  of  the  Bible  than  with  these 
four  books.  There  is  no  part  of  God's  word  which 
the  religious  man  more  instinctively  remembers.  The 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  the  Parables  and  the  Miracles, 
the  Last  Supper,  the  Mount  of  Olives,  the  Garden  of 
Gethsemane,  the  Cross  on  Calvary,  —  these  are  the 
companions  alike  of  infancy  and  of  old  age ;  simple 
enough  to  be .  read  with  awe  and  wonder  by  the  one, 


30         THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

profound  enough  to  open  new  depths  of  wisdom  to 
the  fullest  experience  of  the  other. 

Our  Lord  was  the  Example  of  mankind  ;  and  there 
can  be  no  other  example  in  the  same  sense.  But  the 
whole  period  from  the  closing  of  the  Old  Testament 
to  the  close  of  the  New  was  the  period  of  the  world's 
youth,  —  the  age  of  examples ;  and  our  Lord's  pres- 
ence was  not  the  only  influence  of  that  kind  which 
has  acted  upon  the  human  race.  Three  companions 
were  appointed  by  Providence  to  give  their  society 
to  this  creature  whom  God  was  educating,  —  Greece, 
Eome,  and  the  Early  Church.  To  these  three  man- 
kind has  ever  since  looked  back,  and  will  ever  here- 
after look  back,  with  the  same  affection,  the  same 
lingering  regret,  with  which  age  looks  back  to  early 
manhood.  Li  these  three  mankind  remembers  the 
brilliant  social  companion,  whose  wit  and  fancy  sharp- 
ened the  intellect  and  refined  the  imagination  ;  the 
bold  and  clever  leader,  with  whom  to  dare  was  to  do, 
and  whose  very  name  was  a  signal  of  success  ;  and 
the  earnest,  heavenly-minded  friend,  whose  saintly 
aspect  was  a  revelation  in  itself. 

Greece  and  Rome  have  not  only  given  to  us  the 
fruits  of  their  discipline,  but  the  companionship  of 
their  bloom.  The  fruits  of  their  discipline  would 
have  passed  into  our  possession,  even  if  their  memory 
had  utterly  perished ;  and  just  as  we  know  not  the 
man  who  first  discovered  arithmetic,  nor  the  man 
who  first  invented  writing,  —  benefactors  with  whom 
no  other  captains  of  science  can  ever  be  compared, 
—  so,  too,  it  is  probable  that  we  inherit  from  many  a 
race  whose  name  we  shall  never  hear  again  fruits  of 
long  training  now  forgotten.  But  Greece  and  Rome 
have  given  us  more  than  any  results  of  discipline  in 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WOELD.        31 

the  never-dying  memory  of  their  fresh  and  youthful 
life.  It  is  this,  and  not  only  the  greatness  or  the 
genius  of  the  classical  writers,  which  makes  their 
literature  pre-eminent  above  all  others.  There  have 
been  great  poets,  great  historians,  great  philosophers, 
in  modern  days.  Greece  can  show  few  poets  equal, 
none  superior,  to  Shakespeare.  Gibbon,  in  many  re- 
spects, stands  above  all  ancient  historians.  Bacon 
was  as  great  a  master  of  philosophy  as  Aristotle. 
Nor,  again,  are  there  wanting  great  writers,  of  times 
older,  as  well  as  of  times  later  than  the  Greek ;  as, 
for  instance,  the  Hebrew  prophets.  But  the  classics 
possess  a  charm  quite  independent  of  genius.  It  is 
not  their  genius  only  which  makes  them  attractive : 
it  is  the  classic  life,  —  the  life  of  the  people  of  that 
day;  it  is  the  image,  there  only  to  be  seen,  of  our 
highest  natural  powers  in  their  freshest  vigor ;  it  is 
the  unattainable  grace  of  the  prime  of  manhood  ;  it 
is  the  pervading  sense  of  youthful  beauty.  Hence, 
while  we  have  elsewhere  great  poems  and  great  his- 
tories, we  never  find  again  that  universal  radiance  of 
fresh  life  which  makes  even  the  most  commonplace 
relics  of  classic  days  models  for  our  highest  art.  The 
common  workmen  of  those  times  breathed  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  gods.  What  are  now  the  ornaments  of 
our  museums  were  then  the  every-day  furniture  of  sit- 
ting and  sleeping-rooms.  In  the  great  monuments 
of  their  literature  we  can  taste  this  pure  inspiration 
most  largely ;  but  even  the  most  commonplace  frag- 
ments of  a  classic  writer  are  steeped  in  the  waters  of 
the  same  fountain.  Those  who  compare  the  moderns 
with  the  ancients,  genius  for  genius,  have  no  difficulty 
in  claiming  for  the  former  equality,  if  not  victory. 
But  the  issue  is  mistaken.     To  combine  the  highest 


32         THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

powers  of  intellect  with  the  freshness  of  youth  was 
possible  only  once  ;  and  that  is  the  glory  of  the  classic 
nations.  The  inspiration  which  is  drawn  by  the  man 
from  the  memory  of  those  whom  he  loved  and  ad- 
mired in  the  spring-time  of  his  life,  is  drawn  by  the 
world  now  from  the  study  of  Greece  and  Rome.  The 
world  goes  back  to  its  youth,  in  hopes  to  become 
young  again ;  and  delights  to  dwell  on  the  feats 
achieved  by  the  companions  of  those  days.  Beneath 
whatever  was  wrong  and  foolish,  it  recognizes  that 
beauty  of  a  fresh  nature  which  never  ceases  to  de- 
light ;  and  the  sins  and  vices  of  that  joyous  time  are 
passed  over  with  the  levity  with  which  men  think  of 
their  young  companions'  follies. 

The  Early  Church  stands  as  the  example  which  has 
most  influenced  our  religious  life,  as  Greece  and  Rome 
have  most  influenced  our  political  and  intellectual  life. 
We  read  the  New  Testament,  not  to  find  there  forms 
of  devotion,  for  there  are  few  to  be  found  ;  nor  laws  of 
church-government,  for  there  are  hardly  any ;  nor 
creeds,  for  there  are  none  ;  nor  doctrines  logically 
stated,  for  there  is  no  attempt  at  logical  precision. 
The  New  Testament  is  almost  entirely  occupied  with 
two  lives,  —  the  life  of  our  Lord  and  the  life  of  the 
Early  Church.  Among  the  Epistles,  there  are  but  two 
which  seem,  even  at  first  sight,  to  be  treatises  for  the 
future,  instead  of  letters  for  the  time,  —  the  Epistle  to 
the  Romans  and  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  ;  but 
even  these,  when  closely  examined,  appear,  like  the 
rest,  to  be  no  more  than  the  fruit  of  the  current  his- 
tory. That  Early  Church  does  not  give  us  precepts, 
but  an  example.  She  says,  *'  Be  ye  followers  of  me,  as 
I  also  am  of  Christ."  This  had  never  been  said  by 
Moses,  nor  by  any  of  the  prophets  ;  but  the  world 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD.        33 

was  now  grown  old  enough  to  be  taught  by  seeing 
the  lives  of  saints  better  than  by  hearing  the  words 
of  prophets.  When,  afterwards,  Christians  needed 
creeds  and  liturgies,  and  forms  of  church-government, 
and  systems  of  theology,  they  could  not  find  them  in 
the  New  Testament :  they  found  there  only  the  ma- 
terials out  of  which  such  needs  could  be  supplied ; 
but  the  combination  and  selection  of  those  materials 
they  had  to  provide  for  themselves.  In  fact,  the  work 
which  the  Early  Church  had  to  do  was  peculiar.  Her 
circumstances  were  still  more  peculiar.  Had  she 
legislated  peremptorily  for  posterity,  her  legislation 
must  have  been  set  aside ;  as,  indeed,  the  prohibition 
to  eat  things  strangled,  and  to  eat  blood,  has  been 
already  set  aside.  But  her  example  will  live  and 
teach  forever.  In  her  we  learn  what  is  meant  by 
zeal,  what  by  love  of  God,  what  by  joy  in  the  Holy 
Ghost,  what  by  endurance  for  the  sake  of  Christ. 
For  the  very  purpose  of  giving  us  a  pattern,  the  chief 
features  in  her  character  are,  as  it  were,  magnified 
into  colossal  proportions.  Our  saints  must  chiefly  be 
the  saints  of  domestic  life,  the  brightness  of  whose 
light  is  visible  to  very  few ;  but  their  saintliness  was 
forced  into  publicity,  and  its  radiance  illumines  the 
earth.  So  on  every  page  of  the  New  Testament  is 
written,  "Go,  and  do  thou  likewise.  Transplant  into 
your  modern  life  the  same  heavenly-mindedness,  the 
same  fervor  of  love,  the  same  unshaken  faith,  the 
same  devotion  to  your  fellow-men."  And  to  these 
pages,  accordingly,  the  Church  of  our  day  turns  for 
renewal  of  inspiration.  We  even  busy  ourselves  in 
tracing  the  details  of  the  early  Christian  life,  and  we 
love  to  find  that  any  practice  of  ours  comes  down 
from  apostolic  times.     This  is  an  exaggeration.     It  is 


84  THE  EDUCATION   OF   THE  WORLD. 

not  really  following  the  Early  Church  to  be  servile 
copyists  of  her  practices.  We  are  not  commanded  to 
have  all  things  in  common  because  the  church  of 
Jerusalem  once  had,  nor  are  we  to  make  every  sup- 
per a  sacrament  because  the  early  Christians  did  so. 
To  copy  the  Early  Church  is  to  do  as  she  did,  not  what 
she  did.  Yet  the  very  exaggeration  is  a  testimony 
of  the  power  which  that  Church  has  over  us.  We 
would  fain  imitate  even  her  outward  actions,  as  a  step 
towards  imitating  her  inner  life.  Her  outward  actions 
were  not  meant  for  our  model.  She,  too,  had  her 
faults, — disorders,  violent  quarrels,  licentious  reckless- 
ness of  opinion,  in  regard  both  to  faith  and  practice. 
But  these  spots  altogether  disappear  in  the  blaze  of 
light  wliich  streams  upon  us  when  we  look  back  to- 
wards her.  Nay,  we  are  impatient  of  being  reminded 
that  she  had  faults  at  all.  So  m_uch  does  her  youthful 
holiness  surpass  all  that  we  can  show,  that  he  who 
can  see  her  faults  seems  necessarily  insensible  to  the 
brightness  of  her  glory.  There  have  been  great  saints 
since  the  days  of  the  apostles  ;  holiness  is  as  possible 
now  as  it  was  then :  but  the  saintliness  of  that  time 
had  a  peculiar  beauty  which  we  cannot  copy,  —  a 
beauty  not  confined  to  the  apostles  or  great  leaders, 
but  pervading  the  whole  churcho  It  is  not  what  they 
endured,  nor  the  virtues  which  they  practised,  that  so 
dazzle  us  :  it  is  the  perfect  simplicity  of  the  religious 
life,  the  singleness  of  heart,  the  openness,  the  child- 
like earnestness.  All  else  has  been  repeated  since  ; 
but  tliis,  never.  And  this  makes  the  religious  man's 
heart  turn  back  with  longing  to  that  blessed  time  when 
the  Lord's  service  was  the  highest  of  all  delights, 
and  every  act  of  worship  came  fresh  from  the  soul. 
If  we  compare  degrees  of  devotion,  it  may  be  reck- 


THE  EDUCATION  OF   THE  WORLD.  35 

oned  something  intrinsically  nobler  to  serve  God  and 
love  him  now,  when  religion  is  colder  than  it  was, 
and  when  we  have  not  the  aid  of  those  thrilling, 
heart-stirring  sympathies  which  blessed  the  Early 
Church.  But  even  if  our  devotion  be  sometimes 
nobler  in  itself,  yet  theirs  still  remains  the  more  beau- 
tiful, the  more  attractive.  Ours  may  have  its  own 
place  in  the  sight  of  God  ;  but  theirs  remains  the  irre- 
sistible example  which  kindles  all  other  hearts  by  its 
fire. 

It  is  nothing  against  the  drift  of  this  argument, 
that  the  three  friends  whose  companionship  is  most 
deeply  engraven  on  the  memory  of  the  world  were  no 
friends  one  to  another.  This  was  the  lot  of  mankind, 
as  it  is  the  lot  of  not  a  few  men.  Greece,  the  child 
of  nature,  had  come  to  full  maturity  so  early  as  to 
pass  away  before  the  other  two  appeared ;  and  Rome 
and  the  Early  Church  disliked  each  other.  Yet  that 
dislike  makes  little  impression  on  us  now.  We  never 
identify  the  Rome  of  our  admiration  with  the  Rome 
which  persecuted  the  Christian:  partly,  indeed,  be- 
cause the  Rome  that  we  admire  was  almost  gone 
before  the  Church  was  founded ;  but  partly,  too,  be- 
cause we  forget  each  of  these  while  we  are  studying 
the  other.  We  almost  make  two  persons  of  Trajan, 
accordingly  as  we  meet  with  him  in  sacred  or  profane 
history.  So  natural  is  it  to  forget,  in  after-life,  the 
faulty  side  of  young  friends'  characters. 

The  susceptibility  of  youth  to  the  impression  of 
society  wears  off  at  last.  The  age  of  reflection  be- 
gins. From  the  storehouse  of  his  youthful  experience 
the  man  begins  to  draw  the  principles  of  his  life. 
The  spirit,  or  conscience,  comes  to  full  strength, 
and  assumes  the  throne  intended  for  him  in  the  soul. 


36         THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

As  an  accredited  judge,  invested  with  full  powers,  lie 
sits  in  the  tribunal  of  our  inner  kingdom,  decides  up- 
on the  past,  and  legislates  upon  the  future,  without 
appeal,  except  to  himself.  He  decides,  not  by  what 
is  beautiful  or  noble  or  soul-inspiring,  but  by  what 
is  right.  Gradually  he  frames  his  code  of  laws ;  re- 
vising, adding,  abrogating,  as  a  wider  and  deeper 
experience  gives  him  clearer  light.  He  is  the  third 
great  teacher,  and  the  last. 

Now,  the  education  by  no  means  ceases  when  the 
spirit  thus  begins  to  lead  the  soul :  the  office  of  the 
spirit  is,  in  fact,  to  guide  us  into  truth,  not  to  give 
truth.  The  youth  who  has  settled  down  to  his  life's 
work  makes  a  great  mistake  if  he  fancies,  that, 
because  he  is  no  more  under  teachers  and  gov- 
ernors, his  education  is,  therefore,  at  an  end.  It  is 
only  changed  in  form.  He  has  much,  very  much, 
to  learn,  —  more,  perhaps,  than  all  which  he  has  yet 
learned ;  and  his  new  teacher  will  not  give  it  to  him 
all  at  once.  The  lesson  of  life  is,  in  this  respect, 
like  the  lessons  whereby  we  learn  any  ordinary  busi- 
ness. The  barrister,  who  has  filled  his  memory  with 
legal  forms  and  imbued  his  mind  with  their  sjDirit, 
knows  that  the  most  valuable  part  of  his  education  is 
yet  to  be  obtained  in  attending  the  courts  of  law. 
The  physician  is  not  content  with  the  theories  of  the 
lecture-room,  nor  with  the  experiments  of  the  labora- 
tory, nor  even  with  the  attendance  at  the  hospitals : 
he  knows  that  independent  practice,  when  he  will  be 
thrown  upon  his  own  resources,  will  open  his  eyes  to 
much  which  at  present  he  sees  through  a  glass  darkly. 
In  every  profession,  after  the  principles  are  apparently 
mastered,  there  yet  remains  much  to  be  learnt  from 
the  application  of  those  principles  to  practice,  —  the 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD.         37 

only  means  by  which  we  ever  understand  principles  to 
the  bottom.  So,  too,  with  the  lesson  which  includes 
all  others,  —  the  lesson  of  life. 

In  this  last  stage  of  his  progress,  a  man  learns  in 
various  ways.     First  he  learns  unconsciously  by  the 
growth  of  his  inner  powers,  and  the  secret  but  steady 
accumulation  of   experience.     The  fire  of  youth  is 
toned  down  and  sobered.     The  realities  of  life  dissi- 
pate many  dreams,  clear  up  many  prejudices,  soften 
down  many  roughnesses.     The  difference  between  in- 
tention and  action,  between  anticipating  temptation 
and  bearing  it,  between  drawing  pictures  of  holiness 
or  nobleness  and  realizing  them,  between  hopes  of 
success  and  reality  of  achievement,  is  taught  by  many 
a  painful  and  many  an  unexpected  experience.      In 
short,  as  the  youth  puts  away  childish  things,  so  does 
the  man  put  away  youthful  things.     Secondly,  the 
full-grown  man  learns  by  reflection.     He  looks  in- 
wards, and  not  outwards  only.     He  re-arranges  the 
results   of  past  experience,  re-examines  by  the  test 
of  reality  the  principles  supplied  to  him  by  books  or 
conversation,  reduces  to  intelligible  and  practical  for- 
mulas what  he  has  hitherto  known  as  vague  general 
rules.     He  not  only  generalizes,  —  youth  will  gener- 
alize with  great  rapidity,  and  often  with  great  acute- 
ness,  —  but  he  learns  to  correct  one  generalization  by 
another.     He  gradually  learns  to  disentangle  his  own 
thoughts,  so  as  not  to  be  led  into  foolish  inconsistency 
by  want  of  clearness  of  purpose.     He  learns  to  distin- 
guish between  momentary  impulses   and  permanent 
determinations  of  character.     He  learns  to  know  the 
limits  of  his  own  powers,  moral  and  intellectual ;  and 
by  slow  degrees,  and  with  much  reluctance,  he  learns 
to   suspend   his  judgment,  and  to   be   content  with 


38         THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

ignorance  where  knowledge  is  beyond  his  reach.     He 
learns  to  know  himself  and  other  men,  and  to  distin- 
guish in  some  measure  his  own  peculiarities  from  the 
leading  features  of  humanity  which  he  shares  with 
all  men.     He  learns  to  know  both  the  worth  and  the 
worthlessness   of  the   world's  judgment   and   of  his 
own.     Thirdly,  he  learns  much  by  mistakes,  both  by 
his  own  and  by  those  of  others.     He  often  persists  in 
a  wrong  cause  till  it  is  too  late  to  mend  what  he  has 
done,  and  he  learns  how  to  use  it  and  how  to  bear  it. 
His   principles,  or  what   he   thought  his   principles, 
break  down  under  him  ;  and  he  is  forced  to  analyze 
them  in  order  to  discover  what  amount  of  truth  they 
really  contain.     He  comes  upon  new  and  quite  unex- 
pected issues  of  what  he  has  done  or  said,  and  he  has 
to  profit  by  such  warnings  as  he  receives.     His  er- 
rors often  force  him,  as  it  were,  to  go  back  to  school ; 
not  now  with  the  happy  docility  of  a  child,  but  with 
the  chastened  submission  of  a  penitent.     Or,  more 
often  still,  his  mistakes  inflict  a  sharp  chastisement, 
which  teaches  him  a  new  lesson  without  much  effort 
on  his  own  part  to  learn.     Lastly,  he  learns  much  by 
contradiction.     The  collision  of  society  compels  him 
to  state  his  opinions  clearly ;  to  defend  them ;  to  mod- 
ify them  when   indefensible  ;    perhaps   to   surrender 
them  altogether,  consciously  or  unconsciously  ;    still 
more   often   to   absorb   them  into   larger   and  fuller 
thoughts,  less  forcible,  but  more  comprehensive.     The 
precision  which  is  thus  often  forced  upon  him  always 
seems  to  diminish  something  of  the  heartiness  and 
power  which  belonged  to  more  youthful  instincts  ;  but 
he  gains  in  directness  of  aim,  and  therefore  in  firmness 
of  resolution.     But  the  greatest  of  his  gains  is  what 
seems  a  loss  ;  for  he  learns  not  to  attempt  the  solution 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WOELD.         39 

of  insoluble  problems,  and  to  have  no  opinion  at  all 
on  many  points  of  the  deepest  interest.  Usually  this 
takes  the  form  of  an  abandonment  of  speculation  ;  but 
it  may  rise  to  the  level  of  a  philosophical  humility, 
which  stops  where  it  can  advance  no  further,  and  con- 
fesses its  own  weakness  in  the  presence  of  the  myste- 
ries of  life. 

But,  throughout  all  this,  it  must  not  be  supposed 
that  he  has  no  more  to  do,  either  with  that  law  which 
guided  his  childhood,  or  with  any  other  law  of  any 
kind.  Since  he  is  still  a  learner,  he  must  learn  on  the 
one  condition  of  all  learning,  —  obedience  to  rules  ; 
not,  indeed,  blind  obedience  to  rules  not  understood, 
but  obedience  to  the  rules  of  his  own  mind,  —  an 
obedience  which  he  cannot  throw  off  without  de- 
scending below  the  childish  level.  He  is  free  ;  but 
freedom  is  not  the  opposite  of  obedience,  but  of  re- 
straint. The  freeman  must  obey,  and  obey  as  pre- 
cisely as  the  bondman ;  and,  if  he  has  not  acquired 
the  habit  of  obedience,  he  is  not  fit  to  be  free.  The 
law,  in  fact,  which  God  makes  the  standard  of  our 
conduct,  may  have  one  of  two  forms.  It  may  be  an 
external  law  ;  a  law  which  is  in  the  hands  of  others,  in 
the  making,  in  the  applying,  in  the  enforcing  of  which 
we  have  no  share  ;  a  law  which  governs  from  the 
outside,  compelling  our  will  to  bow,  even  though  our 
understanding  be  unconvinced  and  unenlightened ; 
saying  you  must,  and  makmg  no  effort  to  make  you 
feel  that  you  ought ;  appealing,  not  to  your  conscience, 
but  to  force  or  fear,  and  caring  little  whether  you  will- 
ingly agree  or  reluctantly  submit.  Or,  again,  the  law 
may  be  an  internal  law  ;  a  voice  which  speaks  within 
the  conscience,  and  carries  the  understanding  along 
with  it ;  a  law  which  treats  us,  not  as  slaves,  but  as 


40         THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

friends,  allowing  us  to  know  what  our  Lord  doetli ;  a 
law  which  bids  us  yield,  not  to  blind  fear  or  awe,  but 
to  the  majesty  of  truth  and  justice  ;  a  law  which  is 
not  imposed  on  us  by  another  power,  but  by  our  own 
enlightened  will.  Now,  the  first  of  these  is  the  law 
which  governs  and  educates  the  child ;  the  second, 
the  law  which  governs  and  educates  the  man.  The 
second  is,  in  reality,  the  spirit  of  the  first.  It  com- 
mands in  a  different  way,  but  with  a  tone  not  one  whit 
less  peremptory  ;  and  he  only  who  can  control  all  ap- 
petites and  passions  in  obedience  to  it  can  reap  the 
full  harvest  of  the  last  and  highest  education. 

This  need  of  law  in  the  full  maturity  of  life  is  so 
imperative,  that  if  the  requisite  self-control  be  lost  or 
impaired,  or  have  never  been  sufficiently  acquired,  the 
man  instinctively  has  recourse  to  a  self-imposed  dis- 
cipline if  he  desire  to  keep  himself  from  falling.  The 
Christian  who  has  fallen  into  sinful  habits  often  finds 
that  he  has  no  resource  but  to  abstain  from  much  that 
is  harmless  in  itself,  because  he  has  associated  it  with 
evil.  He  takes  monastic  vows  because  the  world  has 
proved  too  much  for  him.  He  takes  temperance 
pledges  because  he  cannot  resist  the  temptations  of 
appetite.  There  are  devils  which  can  be  cast  out  with 
a  word :  there  are  others  which  go  not  out  but  by 
(not  prayer  only,  but)  fasting.  This  is  often  the  case 
with  the  late  converted.  They  are  compelled  to  ab- 
stain from,  and  sometimes  they  are  induced  to  de- 
nounce, many  pleasures  and  many  enjoyments  which 
they  find  unsuited  to  their  spiritual  health.  The 
world  and  its  enjoyments  have  been  to  them  a  source 
of  perpetual  temptation,  and  they  cannot  conceive 
any  religious  life  within  such  a  circle  of  evil.  Some- 
times these  men  are  truly  spiritual  enough  and  hum- 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WOELD.         41 

ble  enough  to  recognize  that  this  discipline  is  not  es- 
sential in  itself,  but  only  for  them  and  for  such  as  they. 
The  discipline  is  then  truly  svibordinate.  It  is  an. 
instrument  in  the  hands  of  their  conscience.  They 
know  what  they  are  doing,  and  why  they  do  it.  But 
sometimes,  if  they  are  weak,  this  discipline  assumes 
the  shape  of  a  regular  external  law.  They  look  upon 
many  harmless  things,  from  which  they  have  suffered 
mischief,  as  absolutely,  not  relatively,  hurtful.  They 
denounce  what  they  cannot  share  without  danger,  as 
dangerous,  not  only  for  them,  but  for  all  mankind, 
and  as  evil  in  itself.  They  set  up  a  conventional 
code  of  duty  founded  on  their  own  experience,  which 
they  extend  to  all  men.  Even  if  they  are  educated 
enough  to  see  that  no  conventional  code  is  intellectu- 
ally tenable,  yet  they  still  maintain  their  system,  and 
defend  it,  as  not  necessary  in  itself,  but  necessary  for 
sinful  men.  The  fact  is,  that  a  merciful  Providence, 
in  order  to  help  such  men,  puts  them  back  under  the 
dominion  of  the  law.  They  are  not  aware  of  it  them- 
selves :  men  who  are  under  the  dominion  of  the  law 
rarely  are  aware  of  it.  But  even  if  they  could 
appeal  to  a  revelation  from  heaven,  they  would  still 
be  imder  the  law;  for  a  revelation  speaking  from 
without,  and  not  from  within,  is  an  external  law,  and 
not  a  spirit. 

For  the  same  reason,  a  strict,  and  even  severe  dis- 
cipline is  needed  for  the  cure  of  reprobates.  Philan- 
thropists complain  sometimes  that  this  teaching  ends 
only  in  making  the  man  say,  "The  punishment  of 
crime  is  what  I  cannot  bear  ;  "  not,  "  The  wickedness 
of  crime  is  what  I  will  not  do."  But  our  nature  is  not 
all  will,  and  the  fear  of  punishment  is  very  often  the 
foundation  on  which  we  build  the  hatred  of  evil.     No 


42         THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

convert  would  look  back  with  any  other  feeling  than 
deep  gratitude  on  a  severity  which  had  set  free  his 
spirit  by  chaining  down  his  grosser  appetites.  It  is 
true,  that  the  teaching  of  mere  discipline,  if  there  be 
no  other  teaching,  is  useless.  If  you  have  only  killed 
one  selfish  principle  by  another,  you  have  done  notli- 
ing  ;  but  if,  while  thus  killing  one  selfish  principle  by 
another,  you  have  also  succeeded  in  awaking  the 
higher  faculty  and  giving  it  free  power  of  self-exertion, 
you  have  done  everything. 

This  return  to  the  teaching  of  discipline  in  mature 
life  is  needed  for  the  intellect  even  more  than  for  the 
conduct.  There  are  many  men,  who,  though  they 
pass  from  the  teaching  of  the  outer  law  to  that  of  the 
inner  in  regard  to  their  practical  life,  never  emerge 
from  the  former  in  regard  to  their  speculative.  They 
do  not  think :  they  are  contented  to  let  others  think 
for  them,  and  to  accept  the  results.  How  far  the 
average  of  men  are  from  having  attained  the  power 
of  free  independent  tliought  is  shown  by  the  stagger- 
ing and  stumbling  of  their  intellects  when  a  com- 
pletely new  subject  of  investigation  tempts  them  to 
form  a  judgment  of  their  own  on  a  matter  which 
they  have  not  studied.  In  such  cases,  a  really  edu- 
cated intellect  sees  at  once  that  no  judgment  is  yet 
within  its  reach,  and  acquiesces  in  suspense :  but 
the  uneducated  intellect  hastens  to  account  for  the 
phenomenon  ;  to  discover  new  laws  of  nature  and 
new  relations  of  truth ;  to  decide  and  predict,  and 
perhaps  to  demand  a  remodelling  of  all  previous 
knowledge.  The  discussions  on  table-turning,  a  few 
years  ago,  illustrated  this  want  of  intellects  able  to 
govern  themselves.  The  whole  analogy  of  physical 
science  was  not  enough  to  induce  that  suspension  of 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD.         43 

judgment  which  was  effected  in  a  week  by  the  dictum 
of  a  known  philosopher. 

There  are,  however,  some  men  who  really  think  for 
themselves  ;  but  even  they  are  sometimes  obliged, 
especially  if  their  speculations  touch  upon  practical 
life,  to  put  a  temporary  restraint  upon  their  intellects. 
They  refuse  to  speculate  at  all  in  directions  where 
they  cannot  feel  sure  of  preserving  their  own  balance 
of  mind.  If  the  conclusions  at  which  they  seem  likely 
to  arrive  are  very  strange,  or  very  unlike  the  general 
analogy  of  truth,  or  carry  important  practical  conse- 
quences, they  will  pause,  and  turn  to  some  other  sub- 
ject, and  try  whether,  if  they  come  back  with  fresh 
minds,  they  still  come  to  the  same  results.  And  this 
may  go  further,  and  they  may  find  such  speculations 
so  bewildering  and  so  unsatisfactory  that  they  finally 
take  refuge  in  a  refusal  to  think  any  more  on  the  par- 
ticular questions.  They  content  themselves  with  so 
much  of  truth  as  they  find  necessary  for  their  spiritual 
life  ;  and  though  perfectly  aware  that  the  wheat  may 
be  mixed  with  tares,  they  despair  of  rooting  up  the 
tares  with  safety  to  the  wheat,  and  therefore  let  both 
grow  together  till  the  harvest.  All  tliis  is  justifiable 
in  the  same  way  that  any  self-discipline  is  justifiable  ; 
that  is,  it  is  justifiable  if  really  necessary.  But,  as  is 
always  the  case  with  those  who  are  under  the  law, 
such  men  are  sometimes  tempted  to  prescribe  for 
others  what  they  need  for  themselves,  and.  to  require 
that  no  others  should  speculate  because  they  dare  not. 
They  not  only  refuse  to  think,  and  accept  other  men's 
thoughts,  which  is  often  quite  right,  but  they  elevate 
those  into  canons  of  faith  for  all  men,  which  is  not 
right.  This  blindness  is,  of  course,  wrong ;  but  in 
reality  it  is  a  blindness  of  the  same  kind  as  that  with 


44         THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WOELD. 

which  the  Hebrews  clung  to  their  law,  —  a  blindness 
provided  for  them  in  mercy,  to  save  their  mtellects 
from  leading  them  into  mischief. 

Some  men,  on  the  other  hand,  show  their  want  of 
intellectual  self-control  by  going  back,  not  to  the 
dominion  of  law,  but  to  the  still  lower  level  of  intel- 
lectual anarchy.  They  speculate  without  any  founda- 
tion at  all.  They  confound  the  internal  consistency 
of  some  dream  of  their  brains  with  the  reality  of  in- 
dependent truth.  They  set  up  theories  which  have 
no  other  evidence  than  compatibility  with  the  few 
facts  that  happen  to  be  known,  and  forget  that  many 
other  theories  of  equal  claims  might  readily  be  in- 
vented. They  are  as  little  able  to  be  content  with 
having  no  judgment  at  all  as  those  who  accept  judg- 
ments at  second-hand.  They  never  practically  realize, 
that,  when  there  is  not  enough  evidence  to  justify  a 
conclusion,  it  is  wisdom  to  draw  no  conclusion.  They 
are  so  eager  for  light,  that  they  will  rub  their  eyes  in 
the  dark,  and  take  the  resulting  optical  dehisions  for 
real  flashes.  They  need  intellectual  discipline  :  but 
they  have  little  chance  of  getting  it ;  for  they  have 
burst  its  bands. 

There  is  yet  a  further  relation  between  the  inner 
law  of  mature  life  and  the  outer  law  of  childhood, 
which  must  be  noticed  ;  and  that  is,  that  the  outer 
law  is  often  the  best  vehicle  in  which  the  inner  law 
can  be  contained  for  the  various  purposes  of  life. 
The  man  remembers  with  affection,  and  keeps  up 
with  delight,  the  customs  of  the  home  of  his  child- 
hood ;  tempted,  perhaps,  to  over-estimate  their  value, 
but,  even  when  perfectly  aware  that  they  are  no  more 
than  one  form  out  of  many  which  a  well-ordered  house- 
hold might  adopt,  preferring  them  because  of  his  long 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WOELD.         45 

familiarity,  and  because  of  the  memories  with  which 
they  are  associated.  So,  too,  truth  often  seems  to 
him  richer  and  fuller  when  expressed  in  some  favorite 
phrase  of  his  mother's  or  some  maxim  of  his  father's. 
He  can  give  no  better  reason,  very  often,  for  much 
that  he  does  every  day  of  his  life,  than  that  his  father 
did  it  before  him  ;  and,  provided  the  custom  is  not  a 
bad  one,  the  reason  is  valid.  And  he  likes  to  go  to 
the  same  church.  He  likes  to  use  the  same  prayers. 
He  likes  to  keep  up  the  same  festivities.  There  are 
limits  to  all  this :  but  no  man  is  quite  free  from  the 
influence  ;  and  it  is  in  many  cases,  perhaps  in  most, 
an  influence  of  the  highest  moral  value.  There  is 
great  value  in  the  removal  of  many  indifferent  matters 
out  of  the  region  of  discussion  into  that  of  precedent. 
There  is  greater  value  still  in  the  link  of  sympathy 
which  binds  the  present  with  the  past,  and  fills  old 
age  with  the  fresh  feelings  of  childhood.  If  truth 
sometimes  suffers  m  form,  it  unquestionably  gains 
much  in  power  ;  and,  if  its  onward  progress  is  re- 
tarded, it  gains  immeasurably  in  solidity  and  in  its 
hold  on  men's  hearts. 

Such  is  the  last  stas-e  in  the  education  of  a  human 
soul ;  and  similar,  as  far  as  it  has  yet  gone,  has  been 
the  last  stage  in  the  education  of  the  human  race. 
Of  course,  so  full  a  comparison  cannot  be  made  in 
this  instance  as  was  possible  in  the  two  that  pre- 
ceded it ;  for  we  are  still  within  the  boundaries  of 
this  third  period,  and  we  cannot  yet  judge  it  as  a 
whole.  But,  if  the  Christian  Church  be  taken  as  the 
representative  of  mankind,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  the 
general  law  observable  in  the  development  of  the  indi- 
vidual may  also  be  found  in  the  development  of  the 
Church. 


46         THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

Since  the  days  of  the  apostles,  no  further  revelation 
has  been  granted  ;  nor  has  any  other  system  of  relig- 
ion sprung  lip  spontaneously  within  the  limits  which 
the  Church  has  covered.  No  prophets  have  commu- 
nicated messages  from  Heaven.  No  infallible  inspira- 
tion has  guided  any  teacher  or  preacher.  The  claim 
of  infallibility,  still  maintained  by  a  portion  of  Chris- 
tendom, has  been  entirely  given  up  by  the  more  ad- 
vanced section.  The  Church,  in  the  fullest  sense,  is 
left  to  herself  to  work  out,  by.  her  natural  faculties, 
the  principles  of  her  own  action  ;  and  whatever  assist- 
ance she  is  to  receive  in  doing  so,  is  to  be  through 
those  natural  faculties,  and  not  in  spite  of  them  or 
without  them. 

From  the  very  first,  the  Church  commenced  tlie 
task  by  determining  her  leading  doctrines  and  the 
principles  of  her  conduct.  These  were  evolved,  as 
principles  usually  are,  partly  by  reflection  on  past  ex- 
perience and  by  formularizing  the  thoughts  embodied 
in  the  record  of  the  Church  of  the  Apostles,  partly 
by  perpetual  collision  with  every  variety  of  opinion. 
This  career  of  dogmatism  in  the  Church  was,  in  many 
ways,  similar  to  the  hasty  generalizations  of  early 
manhood.  The  principle  on  which  the  controversies 
of  those  days  were  conducted  is  that  of  giving  an 
answer  to  every  imaginable  question.  It  rarely  seems 
to  occur  to  the  early  controversialists,  that  there  are 
questions  which  even  the  Church  cannot  solve, — prob- 
lems which  not  even  revelation  has  brought  within 
the  reach  of  human  faculties.  That  the  decisions 
were  right,  on  the  whole,  —  that  is,  that  they  always 
embodied,  if  they  did  not  always  rightly  define,  tlie 
truth,  —  is  proved  by  the  permanent  vitality  of  the 
Church  as  compared  with  the  various  heretical  bodies. 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD.        47 

that  broke  from  her.  But  the  fact  that  so  vast  a 
number  of  the  early  decisions  are  practically  obsolete, 
and  that  even  many  of  the  doctrinal  statements  are 
plainly  unfitted  for  permanent  use,  is  a  proof  that  the 
Church  was  not  capable,  any  more  than  a  man  is 
capable,  of  extracting  at  once  all  the  truth  and  wis- 
dom contained  in  the  teaching  of  the  earlier  periods. 
In  fact,  the  Church  of  the  Fathers  claimed  to  do  what 
not  even  the  apostles  had  claimed ;  namely,  not  only 
to  teach  the  truth,  but  to  clothe  it  in  logical  state- 
ments, and  that  not  merely  as  opposed  to  then  pre- 
vailing heresies  (which  was  justifiable),  but  for  all 
succeeding  time.  Yet  this  was,  after  all,  only  an 
exaggeration  of  the  proper  function  of  the  time. 
Those  logical  statements  were  necessary ;  and  it  be- 
longs to  a  later  epoch  to  see  "  the  law  within  the  law," 
which  absorbs  such  statements  into  something  higher 
than  themselves. 

Before  this  process  can  be  said  to  have  worked 
itself  out,  it  was  interrupted  by  a  new  phenomenon, 
demanding  essentially  different  management.  A  flood 
of  new  and  undisciplined  races  poured  into  Europe  : 
on  the  one  hand,  supplying  the  Church  with  the 
vigor  of  fresh  life  to  replace  the  effete  materials  of 
the  old  Roman  Empire ;  and  on  the  other,  carrying 
her  back  to  the  childish  stage,  and  necessitating  a 
return  to  the  dominion  of  outer  law.  The  "Church 
instinctively  had  recourse  to  the  only  means  that 
would  suit  the  case  ;  namely,  a  revival  of  Judaism. 
The  Papacy  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  the  Papal  hier- 
archy, with  all  its  numberless  ceremonies  and  appli- 
ances of  external  religion  ;  with  its  attention  fixed 
upon  deeds,  and  not  on  thoughts  or  feelings  or  pur- 
poses ;  with  its  precise  apportionment  of  punishments 


48  THE  EDUCATION   OF   THE  WOELD. 

and  purgatory,  —  was,  in  fact,  neither  more  nor  less 
than  the  old  schoolmaster  come  back  to  bring  some 
new  scholars  to  Christ.  Of  course,  this  was  not  the 
conscious  intention  of  the  then  rulers  of  the  Church  : 
they  believed  in  their  own  ceremonies  as  much  as 
any  of  the  people  at  large.  The  return  to  the 
dominion  of  law  was  instinctive,  not  intentional ; 
but  its  object  is  now  as  evident  as  the  object  of  the 
ancient  Mosaic  system.  Nothing  short  of  a  real  sys- 
tem of  discipline,  accepted  as  divine  by  all  alike, 
could  have  tamed  the  German  and  Celtisli  nature 
into  the  self-control  needed  for  a  triily  spiritual  relig- 
ion. How  could  Clovis,  at  the  head  of  his  Franks, 
have  made  any  right  use  of  absolute  freedom  of  con- 
science ?  Nor  was  this  a  case  in  which  the  less 
disciplined  race  could  have  learned  spirituality  from 
the  more  disciplined :  this  may  happen  when  the 
more  disciplined  is  much  the  more  vigorous  of  the 
two.  But  the  exhausted  Roman  Empire  had  not  such 
strength  of  life  left  within  it.  There  was  no  alter- 
native but  that  all  alike  should  be  put  under  the  law 
to  learn  the  lesson  of  obedience. 

When  the  work  was  done,  men  began  to  discover 
that  the  law  was  no  longer  necessary ;  and,  of  course, 
there  was  no  reason  why  they  should  then  discuss 
the  question,  whether  it  ever  had  been  necessary. 
The  time  was  come  when  it  was  fit  to  trust  to  the 
conscience  as  the  supreme  guide ;  and  the  yoke  of 
the  mediaeval  discipline  was  shaken  off  by  a  contro- 
versy, which,  in  many  respects,  was  a  repetition  of 
that  between  St.  Paul  and  the  Judaizers.  But,  as  is 
always  the  case  after  a  temporary  return  to  the  state 
of  discipline,  Christendom  did  not  go  back  to  the 
position  or  the  duty  from  which  she  had  been  drawn 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD.         49 

by  the  influx  of  the  Barbarian  races.  The  human 
mind  had  not  stood  still  through  the  ages  of  bondage, 
though  its  motions  had  been  hidden.  The  Church's 
whole  energy  was  taken  up,  in  the  first  six  centuries 
of  her  existence,  in  the  creation  of  a  theology.  Since 
that  time,  it  had  been  occupied  in  renewing,  by  self- 
discipline,  the  self-control  which  the  sudden  absorp- 
tion of  the  Barbarians  had  destroyed.  At  the  Refor- 
mation, it  might  have  seemed,  at  first,  as  if  the  study 
of  theology  were  about  to  return  ;  but,  in  reality,  an 
entirely  new  lesson  commenced,  —  the  lesson  of  tol- 
eration. Toleration  is  the  very  opposite  of  dogma- 
tism. It  implies,  in  reality,  a  confession  that  there 
are  insoluble  problems  upon  which  even  revelation 
throws  but  little  light.  Its  tendency  is  to  modify  the 
early  dogmatism  by  substituting  the  spirit  for  the  let- 
ter, and  practical  religion  for  precise  definitions  of 
truth.  This  lesson  is  certainly  not  yet  fully  learnt. 
Our  toleration  is  at  present  too  often  timid,  too  often 
rash,  —  sometimes  sacrificing  valuable  rehgious  ele- 
ments, sometimes  fearing  its  own  plainest  conclusions ; 
yet  there  can  be  no  question  that  it  is  gaining  on 
the  minds  of  all  educated  men,  whether  Protestant  or 
Roman  Catholic,  and  is  passing  from  them  to  be  the 
common  property  of  educated  and  uneducated  alike. 
There  are  occasions  when  the  spiritual  anarchy  which 
has  necessarily  followed  the  Reformation  threatens, 
for  a  moment,  to  bring  back  some  temporary  bondage, 
like  the  Roman  Catholic  system ;  but,  on  the  whole, 
the  steady  progress  of  toleration  is  unmistakable. 
The  mature  mind  of  our  race  is  beginning  to  modify 
and  soften  the  hardness  and  severity  of  the  principles 
which  its  early  manhood  had  elevated  into  immutable 
statements  of  truth.     Men  are  beginning  to  take  a 

3      •  D 


50         THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

wider  view  than  they  did.  Physical  science,  re- 
searches into  history,  a  more  thorough  knowledge  of 
the  world  they  inhabit,  have  enlarged  our  philosophy 
beyond  the  limits  which  bounded  that  of  the  Church 
of  the  Fathers ;  and  all  these  have  an  influence, 
whether  we  will  or  no,  on  our  determinations  of  re- 
ligious truth.  There  are  found  to  be  more  things  in 
h.eaven  and  earth  than  were  dreamt  of  in  the  patristic 
theology.  God's  creation  is  a  new  book,  to  be  read 
by  the  side  of  his  revelation,  and  to  be  interpreted  as 
coming  from  him.  We  can  acknowledge  the  great 
value  of  the  forms  in  which  the  first  ages  of  the 
Church  defined  the  truth,  and  yet  refuse  to  be  bound 
by  them  ;  we  can  use  them,  and  yet  endeavor  to  go 
beyond  them,  just  as  they  also  went  beyond  the  legacy 
which  was  left  us  by  the  apostles. 

In  learning  this  new  lesson,  Christendom  needed  a 
firm  spot  on  which  she  might  stand  ;  and  has  found  it 
in  the  Bible.  Had  the  Bible  been  drawn  up  in  pre- 
cise statements  of  faith  or  detailed  precepts  of  con- 
duct, we  should  have  had  no  alternative  but  either 
permanent  subjection  to  an  outer  law,  or  loss  of  the 
highest  instrument  of  self-education.  But  the  Bible, 
from  its  very  form,  is  exactly  adapted  to  our  present 
want.  It  is  a  history  :  even  the  doctrinal  parts  of  it 
are  cast  in  a  historical  form,  and  are  best  studied  by 
considering  them  as  records  of  the  time  at  which 
tliey  were  written,  and  as  conveying  to  us  the  high- 
est and  greatest  religious  life  of  that  time.  Hence 
we  use  the  Bible,  —  some  consciously,  some  uncon- 
sciously, —  not  to  override,  but  to  evoke,  the  voice  of 
conscience.  When  conscience  and  the  Bible  appear 
to  differ,  the  pious  Christian  immediately  concludes 
that  he  harf  not  really  understood  the  Bible.     Hence, 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD.         51 

too,  while  the  interpretation  of  the  Bible  varies 
slightly  from  age  to  age,  it  varies  always  in  one 
direction.  The  schoolmen  found  purgatory  in  it. 
Later  students  found  enough  to  condemn  Galileo. 
Not  long  ago,  it  would  have  been  held  to  condemn 
geology ;  and  there  are  still  many  who  so  interpret  it. 
The  current  is  all  one  way :  it  evidently  points  to 
the  identification  of  the  Bible  with  the  voice  of  con- 
science. The  Bible,  in  fact,  is  hindered  by  its  form 
from  exercising  a  despotism  over  the  human  spirit :  if 
it  could  do  that,  it  would  become  an  outer  law  at 
once  ;  but  its  form  is  so  admirably  adapted  to  our 
need,  that  it  wins  from  us  all  the  reverence  of  a 
supreme  authority,  and  yet  imposes  on  us  no  yoke  of 
subjection.  This  it  does  by  virtue  of  the  principle 
of  private  judgment,  which  puts  conscience  between 
us  and  the  Bible  ;  making  conscience  the  supreme 
interpreter,  whom  it  may  be  a  duty  to  enlighten,  but 
whom  it  can  never  be  a  duty  to  disobey. 

This  recurrence  to  the  Bible  as  the  great  authority 
has  been  accompanied  by  a  strong  inclination,  com- 
mon to  all  Protestant  countries,  to  go  back  in  every 
detail  of  life  to  the  practices  of  early  times  ;  chiefly, 
no  doubt,  because  such  a  revival  of  primitive  prac- 
tices, wherever  possible,  is  the  greatest  help  to  enter- 
ing into  the  very  essence,  and  imbibing  the  spirit,  of 
the  days  when  the  Bible  was  written.  So,  too,  the 
•observance  of  the  Sunday  has  a  stronger  hold  on 
the  minds  of  all  religious  men  because  it  penetrates 
the  whole  texture  of  the  Old  Testament.  The  insti- 
tution is  so  admirable,  indeed  so  necessary  in  itself, 
that,  without  this  hold,  it  would  deserve  its  present 
position  ;  but  nothing  but  its  prominent  position  in 
the  Bible  would  have  made  it,  what  it  now  is,  the  one  j 


52  THE  EDUCATION   OF   THE  WORLD. 

ordinance  wliicli  all  Christendom  alike  agrees  in  keep- 
ing. In  such  an  observance,  men  feel  that  they  are, 
so  far,  living  a  scriptural  life  ;  and  have  come,  as  it 
were,  a  step  nearer  to  the  inner  power  of  the  book 
from  which  they  expect  to  learn  their  highest  lessons. 
Some,  indeed,  treat  it  as  enjoined  by  an  absolutely 
binding  decree,  and  thus  at  once  put  themselves 
under  a  law.  But,  short  of  that,  those  who  defend 
it  only  by  arguments  of  Christian  expediency  are 
yet  compelled  to  acknowledge,  that  those  arguments 
are  so  strong,  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  imagine 
a  higher  authority  for  any  ceremonial  institution  ; 
and  among  those  arguments,  one  of  the  foremost  is 
the  sympathy  which  the  institution  fosters  between 
the  student  of  the  Bible  and  the  book  which  he 
studies. 

This  tendency  to  go  back  to  the  childhood  and 
youth  of  the  world  has,  of  course,  retarded  the 
acquisition  of  that  toleration  which  is  the  chief 
philosophical  and  religious  lesson  of  modern  days. 
Unquestionably,  as  bigoted  a  spirit  has  often  been 
shown  in  defence  of  some  practice  for  which  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  Bible  had  been  claimed,  as,  before  the  Ref- 
ormation, in  defence  of  the  decrees  of  the  Church. 
But  no  lesson  is  well  learned  all  at  once.  To  learn 
toleration  well  and  really ;  to  let  it  become,  not  a 
philosophical  tenet,  but  a  practical  principle ;  to  join 
it  with  real  religiousness  of  life  and  character,  —  it 
is  absolutely  necessary  that  it  should  break  in  upon 
the  mind  by  slow  and  steady  degrees,  and  that  at 
every  point  its  right  to  go  further  should  be  disputed, 
and  so  forced  to  logical  proof :  for  it  is  only  by  virtue 
of  the  opposition  which  it  has  surmounted  that  any 
truth  can  stand  in  the  human  mind.     The  strongest 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD.         63 

argument  in  favor  of  tolerating  all  opinions  is,  that 
our  conviction  of  the  truth  of  an  opinion  is  worthless 
unless  it  has  established  itself  in  spite  of  the  most 
strenuous  resistance,  and  is  still  prepared  to  over- 
come the  same  resistance  if  necessary.  Toleration 
itself  is  no  exception  to  the  universal  law ;  and  those 
who  must  regret  the  slow  progress  by  which  it  wins 
its  way,  may  remember  that  this  slowness  makes  the 
final  victory  the  more  certain  and  complete.  Nor  is 
that  all.  The  toleration  thus  obtained  is  different  in 
kind  from  what  it  would  otherwise  have  been.  It  is 
not  only  stronger;  it  is  richer  and  fuller:  for  the 
slowness  of  its  progress  gives  time  to  disentangle 
from  dogmatism  the  really  valuable  principles  and 
sentiments  that  have  been  mixed  up  and  intwined  in 
it,  and  to  unite  toleration,  not  with  indifference  and 
worldliness,  but  with  spiritual  truth,  and  religious- 
ness of  life. 

Even  the  perverted  use  of  the  Bible  has,  therefore, 
not  been  without  certain  great  advantages.  And, 
meanwhile,  how  utterly  impossible  it  would  be  in  the 
manhood  of  the  world  to  imagine  any  other  instructor 
of  mankind  !  And,  for  that  reason,  every  day  makes 
it  more  and  more  evident  that  the  thorough  study  of 
the  Bible,  the  investigation  of  what  it  teaches  and 
what  it  does  not  teach,  the  determination  of  the  limits 
of  what  we  mean  by  its  inspiration,  the  determination 
of  the  degree  of  authority  to  be  ascribed  to  the  differ- 
ent books  (if  any  degrees  are  to  be  admitted),  must 
take  the  lead  of  all  other  studies.  He  is  guilty  of 
high  treason  agamst  the  faitli  who  fears  the  result  of 
any  investigation,  whether  philosophical  or  scientific 
or  historical.  And,  therefore,  nothing  should  be  more 
welcome  than -the  extension  of  knowledge  of  any  and 


64         THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

every  kind  ;  for  every  increase  in  our  accumulations 
of  knowledge  throws  fresh  light  upon  these,  the  real 
problems  of  our  day.  If  geology  proves  to  us  that 
we  must  not  interpret  the  first  chapters  of  Genesis 
literally ;  if  historical  investigation  shall  show  us, 
that  inspiration,  however  it  may  protect  the  doctrine, 
yet  was  not  empowered  to  protect  the  narrative  of 
the  inspired  writers  from  occasional  inaccuracy ;  if 
careful  criticism  shall  prove  that  there  have  been 
occasionally  interpolations  and  forgeries  in  that  book, 
as  in  many  others,  —  the  results  should  still  be  wel- 
come. Even  the  mistakes  of  careful  and  reverent 
students  are  more  valuable  now  than  truth  held  in 
unthinking  acquiescence.  The  substance  of  the  teach- 
ing which  we  derive  from  the  Bible  will  not  really  be 
affected  by  anything  of  this  sort ;  while  its  hold 
upon  the  minds  of  believers,  and  its  power  to  stir 
the  depths  of  the  spirit  of  man,  however  much  weak- 
ened at  first,  must  be  immeasurably  strengthened  in 
the  end  by  clearing  away  any  blunders  which  may 
have  been  fastened  on  it  by  human  interpretation. 

The  immediate  work  of  our  day  is  the  study  of  the 
Bible.  Other  studies  will  act  upon  the  progress  of 
mankind  by  acting  through  and  upon  this ;  for  while 
a  few  highly  educated  men  here  and  there,  who  have 
given  their  minds  to  special  pursuits,  may  think  the 
study  of  the  Bible  a  thing  of  the  past,  yet  assuredly, 
if  their  science  is  to  have  its  effect  upon  men  in  the 
mass,  it  must  be  by  affecting  their  moral  and  relig- 
ious convictions  :  in  no  other  way  have  men  been,  or 
can  men  be,  deeply  and  permanently  changed.  But 
though  this  study  must  be  for  the  present  and  for 
some  time,  the  centre  of  all  studies,  there  is  mean- 
while no  study  of  whatever  kind  which  will  not  have 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WOKLD.         65 

its  share  in  the  general  effect.  At  this  time,  in  the 
maturity  of  mankind,  as  with  each  man  in  the  matu- 
rity of  his  powers,  the  great  lever  which  moves  the 
world  is  knowledge ;  the  great  force  is  the  intellect. 
St.  Paul  has  told  us,  "  that,  though  in  malice  we  must 
be  children,  in  understanding  we  ought  to  be  men  ;  " 
and  this  saying  of  his  has  the  widest  range.  Not 
only  in  the  understanding  of  religious  truth,  but  in 
all  exercise  of  the  intellectual  powers,  we  have  no 
right  to  stop  short  of  any  limit  but  that  which  nature 
—  that  is,  the  decree  of  the  Creator  —  has  imposed 
on  us.  In  fact,  no  knowledge  can  be  without  its 
eifect  on  religious  convictions ;  for  if  not  capable  of 
throwing  direct  light  on  some  spiritual  questions,  yet, 
in  its  acquisition,  knowledge  invariably  throws  light 
on  the  process  by  which  it  is  to  be  or  has  been  ac- 
quired, and  thus  affects  all  other  knowledge  of  every 
kind. 

If  we  have  made  mistakes,  careful  study  may  teach 
us  better  ;  if  we  have  quarrelled  about  words,  the 
enlightenment  of  tlie  understanding  is  the  best  means 
to  show  us  our  folly ;  if  we  have  vainly  puzzled  our 
intellects  with  subjects  beyond  human  cognizance, 
better  knowledge  of  ourselves  will  help  us  to  be 
humbler.  Life,  indeed,  is  higher  than  all  else  ;  and 
no  service  that  man  can  render  to  his  fellows  is  to  be 
compared  with  the  heavenly  power  of  a  life  of  holi- 
ness. But  next  to  that  must  be  ranked  whatever 
tends  to  make  men  think  clearly  and  judge  correctly. 
So  valuable,  even  above  all  things  (excepting  only 
godliness),  is  clear  thought,  that  the  labors  of  the 
statesman  are  far  below  those  of  the  philosopher  in 
duration,  in  power,  and  in  beneficial  results.    Thought 


56         THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

is  now  higher  than  action,  unless  action  be  inspired 
with  the  very  breath  of  heaven  :  for  we  are  now  men, 
governed  by  principles,  if  governed  at  all ;  and  cannot 
rely  any  longer  on  the  impulses  of  youth  or  the  disci- 
plme  of  childhood. 


BUNSEN'S    BIBLICAL    RESEARCHES 

y 

By  ROWLAND  WILLIAMS,  D.D. 


WHEN  geologists  began  to  ask  whether  changes 
in  the  earth's  structure  might  be  explained  by 
causes  still  in  operation,  they  did  not  disprove  the 
possibility  of  great  convulsions,  but  they  lessened  the 
necessity  for  imagining  them.  So,  if  a  theologian  has 
his  eyes  opened  to  the  Divine  Energy  as  continuous 
and  omnipresent,  he  lessens  the  sharp  contrast  of 
epochs  in  revelation,  but  need  not  assume  that  the 
stream  has  never  varied  in  its  flow.  Devotion  raises 
time  present  into  the  sacredness  of  the  past ;  while 
criticism  reduces  the  strangeness  of  the  past  into 
harmony  with  the  present.  Faith  and  prayer  (and 
great  marvels  answering  to  them)  do  not  pass  away ; 
but,  in  prolonging  their  range  as  a  whole,  we  make 
their  parts  less  exceptional.  We  hardly  discern  the 
truth,  for  which  they  are  anxious,  until  we  distinguish 
it  from  associations  accidental  to  their  domain.  The 
truth  itself  may  have  been  apprehended  in  various 
degrees  by  servants  of  Grod,  of  old,  as  now.  Instead 
of,  with  TertulUan,  "what  was  first  is  truest,"  we 
may  say.  What  comes  of  God  is  true  :  and  he  is  not 
only  afar,  but  nigh  at  hand  ;  though  his  mind  is  not 
changed. 

3* 


58  BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  RESEARCHES. 

Questions  of  miraculous  interference  do  not  turn 
merely  upon  our  conceptions  of  physical  law,  as  un- 
broken, or  of  the  Divine  Will,  as  all-pervading ;  but 
they  include  inquiries  into  evidence,  and  must  abide 
by  verdicts  on  the  age  of  records.  Nor  should  the 
distinction  between  poetry  and  prose,  and  the  possi- 
bility of  imagination's  allying  itself  with  affection, 
be  overlooked.  We  cannot  encourage  a  remorseless 
criticism  of  Gentile  histories,  and  escape  its  conta- 
gion when  we  approach  Hebrew  annals  ;  nor  acknowl- 
edge a  Providence  in  Jewry,  without  owning  that  it 
may  have  comprehended  sanctities  elsewhere.  But 
the  moment  we  examine  fairly  the  religions  of  India 
and  of  Arabia,  or  even  those  of  primeval  Hellas  and 
Latium,  we  find  they  appealed  to  the  better  side  of 
our  nature  ;  and  their  essential  strength  lay  in  the 
elements  of  good  which  they  contained,  rather  than 
in  any  satanic  corruption. 

Thus  considerations,  religious  and  moral,  no  less 
than  scientific  and  critical,  have,  where  discussion 
was  free,  widened  the  idea  of  revelation  for  the  old 
world,  and  deepened  it  for  ourselves :  not  removing 
the  footsteps  of  the  Eternal  from  Palestine,  but  tracing 
them  on  other  shores  ;  and  not  making  the  saints  of 
old,  orphans,  but  ourselves  partakers  of  their  sonship. 
Conscience  would  not  lose  by  exchanging  that  repres- 
sive idea  of  revelation,  which  is  put  over  against  it  as 
an  adversary,  for  one  to  which  the  echo  of  its  best 
instincts  should  be  the  witness.  The  moral  constit- 
uents of  our  nature,  so  often  contrasted  with  revelation, 
should  rather  be  considered  parts  of  its  instrumental- 
ity. Those  cases  in  which  we  accept  the  miracle  for 
the  sake  of  the  moral  lesson  prove  the  ethical  element 
to  be  the  more  fundamental.   Wo  see  this  more  clearly 


BXmSEN'S  BIBLICAL  EESEARCHES.  59 

if  we  imagine  a  miracle  of  cruelty  wrought  (as  by 
Antichrist)  for  immoral  ends  ;  for  then  only  the  tech- 
nically miraculous  has  its  value  isolated :  whereas,  by 
appealing  to  ^ood  "works"  (however  wonderful)  for 
his  witness,  Christ  has  taught  us  to  have  faith  mainly 
in  goodness.  This  is  too  much  overlooked  by  some 
apologists.  But  there  is  hardly  any  greater  question 
than  whether  history  shows  Almighty  God  to  have 
trained  mankind  by  a  faith  which  has  reason  and  con- 
science for  its  kindred,  or  by  one  to  whose  miraculous 
tests  their  pride  must  bow :  that  is,  whether  his  Holy 
Spirit  has  acted  through  the  channels  which  his  prov- 
idence ordained  ;  or  whether  it  has  departed  from 
these  so  signally  that  comparative  mistrust  of  them 
ever  afterwards  becomes  a  duty.  The  first  alterna- 
tive, though  invidiously  termed  philosophical,  is  that 
to  which  free  nations  and  evangelical  thinkers  tend : 
the  second  has  a  greater  show  of  religion,  but  allies 
itself  naturally  with  priestcraft  or  formalism,  and  not 
rarely  with  corruptness  of  administration  or  of  life. 

In  this  issue  converge  many  questions  anciently 
stirred,  but  recurring  in  our  daylight  with  almost 
uniform*  accession  of  strength  to  the  liberal  side. 
Such  questions  turn  chiefly  on  the  law  of  growth, 
traceable  throughout  the  Bible  as  in  the  world ;  and 
partly  on  science  or  historical  inquiry  :  but  no  less  on 
the  deeper  revelations  of  the  New  Testament,  as  com- 
pared to  those  of  the  Old.     If  we  are  to  retain  the 


*  It  is  very  remai-kable  that,  amidst  all  our  biblical  illustration  from  re- 
cent travellers,  Layard,  Rawlinson,  Robinson,  Stanley,  &c.,  no  single  point 
lias  been  discovered  to  tell  in  favor  of  an  irrational  supernaturalism; 
"whereas  numerous  discoveries  have  confirmed  the  more  liberal  (not  to  say, 
rationalizing)  criticism  which  traces  revelation  historically  within  the  sphere 
of  nature  and  humanitj'.  Such  is  the  moral,  both  of  the  Assyrian  discov- 
eries and  of  all  travels  in  the  East,  as  well  as  the  verdict  of  philologers  at 
home.    Mr.  G.  Rawlinson's  proof  of  this  is  stronger,  because  undesigned. 


60  BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  EESEAECHES. 

old  Anglican  foundations  of  research  and  fair  state- 
ment, we  must  revise  some  of  the  decisions  provision- 
ally given  upon  imperfect  evidence :  or,  if  we  shrink 
from  doing  so,  we  must  abdicate  our  ancient  claim  to 
build  upon  the  truth ;  and  our  retreat  will  be  either 
to  Eome,  as  some  of  our  lost  ones  have  consistently 
seen,  or  to  some  form,  equally  evil,  of  darkness  vol- 
untary. The  attitude  of  too  many  English  scholars 
before  the  last  monster  out  of  the  deep  is  that  of  the 
degenerate  senators  before  Tiberius.  They  stand, 
balancing  terror  against  mutual  shame.  Even  with 
those  in  our  universities  who  no  longer  repeat  fully 
the  required  shibboleths,  the  explicitness  of  truth  is 
rare.  He  who  assents  most,  committing  himself  least 
to  baseness,  is  reckoned  wisest. 

Bunsen's  enduring  glory  is,  neither  to  have  paltered 
with  his  conscience  nor  shrunk  from  the  difficulties 
of  the  problem,  but  to  have  brought  a  vast  erudition, 
in  the  light  of  a  Christian  conscience,  to  unroll  tangled 
records ;  tracing  frankly  the  Spirit  of  God  elsewhere, 
but  honoring  chiefly  the  traditions  of  His  Hebrew 
sanctuary.  No  living  author's  works  could  furnish 
so  pregnant  a  text  for  a  discourse  on  biblical  criti- 
cism. Passing  over  some  specialties  of  Lutheranism, 
we  may  meet  in  the  field  of  research  which  is  common 
to  scholars ;  while,  even  here,  the  sympathy  which 
justifies  respectful  exposition  need  not  imply  entire 
agreement. 

In  the  great  work  upon  Egypt,*  the  later  volumes 
of  which  are  now  appearing  in  English,  we  do  not 
find  that  picture  of  home-life  which  meets  us  in  the 
pages   of  our   countryman,  Sir   G.  Wilkinson.     The 

*  Egypt's  Place  in  Universal  History,  by  Christian  C.  J.  Buusen,  &e. 
London.    1848,  vol.  i. ;   1854,  vol.  ii. 


BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  EESEARCHES.  61 

interest  for  robust  scholars  is  not  less,  in  the  fruitful 
comparison  of  the  oldest  traditions  of  our  race,  and  in 
the  giant  shapes  of  ancient  empires,  which  flit  like 
dim  shadows,  evoked  by  a  master's  hand.  But  for 
those  who  seek  chiefly  results,  there  is  something  wea- 
risome in  the  elaborate-  discussion  of  authorities  ;  and, 
it  must  be  confessed,  the  German  refinement  of  method 
has  all  the  effect  of  confusion.  To  give  details  here 
is  impossible  (though  the  more  any  one  scrutinizes 
them,  the  more  substantial  he  will  find  them)  ;  and 
this  sketch  must  combine  suggestions,  which  the 
author  has  scattered  strangely  apart,  and  sometimes 
repeated  without  perfect  consistency.  He  dwells 
largely  upon  Herodotus,  Eratosthenes,  and  their  suc- 
cessors, from  Champollion  and  Young  to  Lepsius. 
Especially  the  dynastic  records  of  the  Ptolemaic  priest 
Manetho  *  are  compared  with  the  accounts  of  the  stone 
monuments.  The  result,  if  we  can  receive  it,  is  to 
vindicate  for  the  civilized  kingdom  of  Egypt,  from 
Menes  downward,  an  antiquity  of  nearly  four  thousand 
years  before  Christ.  There  is  no  point  in  which  ar- 
chaeologists of  all  shades  were  so  nearly  unanimous  as 
in  the  belief  that  our  biblical  chronology  was  too  nar- 
row in  its  limits ;  and  the  enlargement  of  our  views, 
deduced  from  Egyptian  records,  is  extended  by  our 
author's  reasonings  on  the  development  of  commerce 
and  government,  and  still  more  of  languages,  and  , 
physical  features  of  race.     He  could  not  have  vindi-  ) 

*  See  an  account  of  him  and  liis  tables  in  the  Byzantine  Syncellus,  pp. 
72-145,  vol.  i.  ed.  Dind.,  in  the  Corpus  Historife  Byzantinre;  Bonn.  1829. 
But  with  this  is  to  be  compai'sd  the  Armenian  version  of  Eusebius's  Chro- 
nology, discovered  by  Cardinal  Mai.  The  text,  the  interpretation,  and  the 
historical  fidelity,  are  all  controverted.  Baron  Bunsen's  treatment  of  them 
deserves  the  provisional  acceptance  due  to  elaborate  research,  with  no  slight 
concurrence  of  probabilities;  and,  if  it  should  not  ultimately  win  a  favor- 
able verdict  from  Egyptologers,  no  one  who  suramar-ily  rejects  it  as  arbitrary 
or  impossible  can  haV§  a  right  to  be  on  the  jury. 


62  BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  EESEAECHES. 

ca,ted  the  unity  of  mankind  if  he  had  not  asked  for  a 
vast  extension  of  time,  whether  his  petition  of  twenty 
thousand  years  be  granted  or  not.  The  mention  of 
such  a  term  may  appear  monstrous  to  those  who 
regard  six  thousand  years  as  a  part  of  revelation. 
Yet  it  is  easier  to  throw  doubt  on  some  of  the  argu- 
ments than  to  show  that  the  conclusion  in  favor  of  a 
vast  length  is  improbable.  If  pottery  in  a  river's  mud 
proves  little,  its  tendency  may  agree  with  that  of  the 
discovery  of  very  ancient  pre-historic  remains  in  many 
parts  of  the  world.  Again,  how  many  years  are 
needed  to  develop  modern  French  out  of  Latin,  and 
Latin  itself  out  of  its  original  crude  forms  ?  How  un- 
like is  English  to  Welsh,  and  Greek  to  Sanscrit !  —  yet 
all  indubitably  of  one  family  of  languages.  What 
years  were  required  to  create  the  existing  divergence 
of  members  of  this  family  !  How  many  more  for  other 
families,  separated  by  a  wide  gulf  from  this,  yet  re- 
taining traces  of  a  primeval  aboriginal  affinity,  to 
have  developed  themselves,  either  in  priority  or  col- 
laterally !  The  same  consonantal  roots,  appearing 
either  as  verbs  inflected  with  great  variety  of  gram- 
matical form  or  as  nouns  with  case-endings  in  some 
languages,  and  with  none  in  others,  plead,  as  con- 
vincingly as  the  succession  of  strata  in  geology,  for 
enormous  lapses  of  time.  When,  again,  we  have 
traced  our  Gaelic  and  our  Sanscrit  to  their  inferential 
pre-Hellenic  stem,  and  when  reason  has  convinced  us 
that  the  Semitic  languages,  which  had  as  distinct  an 
individuality  four  thousand  years  ago  as  they  have 
now,  require  a  cradle  of  larger  dimensions  than  Arch- 
bishop Ussher's  chronology,  what  further  effort  is  not 
forced  upon  our  imagination,  if  we  would  guess  the 
measure  of  the  dim  background  in  which  the  Mongo- 


BUNSEN'S   BIBLICAL   RESEARCHES.  63 

lian  and  Egyptian  languages,  older  probably  than  the 
Hebrew,  became  fixed,  growing  early  into  the  type 
which  they  retain  ?  Do  we  see  an  historical  area  of 
nations  and  languages  extending  itself  over  nearly 
ten  thousand  years  ?  and  can  we  imagine  less  than 
another  ten  thousand,  during  which  the  possibilities 
of  these  things  took  body  and  form  ?  Questions  of 
this  kind  require  from  most  of  us  a  special  training 
for  each  ;  but  Baron  Bunsen  revels  in  them,  and  his 
theories  are  at  least  suggestive.  He  shows  what 
Egypt  had  in  common  with  that  primeval  Asiatic 
stock,  represented  by  Ham,  out  of  which,  as  raw 
material,  he  conceives  the  divergent  families,  termed 
Indo-European  *  and  Semitic  (or  the  kindreds  of 
Europe  and  of  Palestine),  to  have  been  later  devel- 
oped. Nimrod  is  considered  as  the  biblical  represen- 
tative of  the  earlier  stock,  whose  ruder  language  is 
continued,  by  affiliation  or  by  analogy^  in  the  Mongo- 
lian races  of  Asia  and  in  the  Negroes  of  Africa. 

The  traditions  of  Babylon,  Sidon,  Assyria,  and  Iran, 
are  brought  by  our  author  to  illustrate  and  confirm, 
though  to  modify  our  interpretation  of.  Genesis.  It 
is  strange  how  nearly  those  ancient  cosmogonies  f 
approach  what  may  be  termed  the  philosophy  of  Mo- 
ses, while  they  fall  short  in  what  Longinus  called 
his  "  worthy  conception  of  the  divinity."  Our  Deluge 
takes  its  place  among  geological  phenomena ;  no  longer 
a  disturbance  of  law  from  which  science  shrinks,  but  a 


*  The  common  term  was  Indo-Germanic.  Dr.  Prichard,  on  bringing  the 
Gael  and  Cymry  into  the  same  family,  required  the  wider  term  Indo- 
European.  Historical  reasons,  chiefly  "'in  connection  with  Sanscrit,  are 
bi-inging  the  term  Aryan,  or  Aryas,  into  fashion.  We  may  adopt  which- 
ever is  intelligible,  Avithont  excluding,  pei'haps,  a  Turanian  or  African  ele- 
ment surviving  in  South  Wales.     Turanian  means  nearly  Mongolian. 

t  Aegypten's  Stelle  in  der  Weltgeschichte,  pp.  186  -  400 ;  B.  v.  1  -  3.  Go- 
tha,  1856. 


64  BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  EESE ARCHES. 

prolonged  play  of  the  forces  of  fire  and  water,  ren- 
dering the  primeval  regions  of  North  Asia  uninhabit- 
able, and  urging  the  nations  to  new  abodes.  We 
learn  approximately  its  antiquity,  and  infer  limitation 
in  its  range,  from  finding  it  recorded  in  the  traditions 
of  Iran  and  Palestine  (or  of  Japhet  and  Shem),  but 
unknown  to  the  Egyptians  and  Mongolians,  who  left 
earlier  the  cradle  of  mankind.  In  the  half-ideal,  half- 
traditional  notices  *  of  the  beginnings  of  our  race, 
compiled  in  Genesis,  we  are  bid  notice  the  combina- 
tion of  documents,  and  the  recurrence  of  barely  con- 
sistent genealogies.  As  the  man  Adam  begets  Cain, 
the  man  Enos  begets  Cainan.  Jared  and  Irad,  Methu- 
selah and  Methusael,  are  similarly  compared.  Seth, 
like  El,  is  an  old  deity's  appellation  ;  and  Man  was  the 
son  of  Seth  in  one  record,  as  Adam  was  the  son  of 
God  in  the  other.  One  could  wish  the  puzzling  cir- 
cumstance, that  the  etymology  of  some  of  the  earlier 
names  seems  strained  to  suit  the  present  form  of  the 
narrative  had  been  explained.  That  our  author  would 
not  shrink  from  noticing  this,  is  shown  by  the  firmness 
with  which  he  relegates  the  long  lives  of  the  first 
patriarchs  to  the  domain  of  legend  or  of  symbolical 
cycle.  He  reasonably  conceives  that  the  historical 
portion  begins  with  Abraham,  where  the  lives  become 
natural,  and  information  was  nearer.  A  sceptical  crit- 
icism might,  indeed,  ask  by  what  right  he  assumes 
that  the  moral  dimensions  of  our  spiritual  heroes  can- 
not have  been  idealized  by  tradition,  as  he  admits  to 
have  been  the  case  with  physical  events  and  with 
chronology  rounded  into  epical  shape  ;  but  the  first 
principles  of  his  philosophy,  which  fixes  on  personality 

*  Aegypten's  Stelle,  &c.,  B.  v.  4,  5,  pp.  50  - 142.     Gotha,  1857. 


BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  EESEAECHES.  65 

(or  what  we  might  call  force  of  character)  as  the 
great  organ  of  divine  manifestation  in  the  world,  and 
his  entire  method  of  handling  the  Bible,  lead  him  to 
insist  on  the  genuineness,  and  to  magnify  the  force,  of 
spiritual  ideas,  and  of  the  men  who  exemplified  them. 
Hence,  on  the  side  of  religion,  he  does  not  intention- 
ally violate  that  reverence  with  which  evangelical 
thinkers  view  the  fathers  of  our  faith.  To  Abraham 
and  Moses,  Elijah  and  Jeremiah,  he  renders  grateful 
honor.  Even  in  archaeology,  his  scepticism  does  not 
outrun  the  suspicions  often  betrayed  in  our  popular 
mind  ;  and  he  limits  while  he  confirms  these,  by  show- 
ing how  far  they  have  ground.  But,  as  he  says  with 
quaint  strength,  "  there  is  no  chronological  element 
in  revelation."  Without  borrowing  the  fifteen  cen- 
turies which  the  Greek  Church  and  the  Septuagint 
would  lend  us,  we  see,  from  comparing  the  Bible  with 
the  Egyptian  records  and  with  itself,  that  our  com- 
mon dates  are  wrong  ;  though  it  is  not  so  easy  to  say 
how  they  should  be  rectified.  The  idea  of  bringing 
Abraham  into  Egypt  as  early  as  2876  B.  C.  is  one  of 
our  author's  most  doubtful  points,  and  may  seem 
hardly  tenable.  Bat  he  wanted  time  for  the  growth 
of  Jacob's  family  into  a  people  of  two  millions  ;  and 
he  felt  bound  to  place  Joseph  under  a  native  Pharaoh, 
therefore,  before  the  shepherd-kings.  He  also  con- 
tends that  Abraham's  horizon  in  Asia  is  antecedent  to 
the  first  Median  conquest  of  Babylon  in  2234.  A 
famine,  conveniently  mentioned  under  the  twelfth 
dynasty  of  Egypt,  completes  his  proof.  Sesortosis, 
therefore,  is  the  Pharaoh  to  whom  Joseph  was  min- 
ister ;  the  stay  of  the  Israelites  in  Egypt  is  extended 
to  fourteen  centuries ;  and  the  date  215  represents 
the  time   of  oppression.     Some  of  these  details  are 

E 


66  BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  RESEARCHES. 

sufficiently  doubtful  to  afford  ground  of  attack  to 
writers  whose  real  quarrel  is  with  our  author's  bibli- 
cal research,  and  its  more  certain,  but  not  therefore 
more  welcome,  conclusions.  It  is  easier  to  follow  him 
implicitly  when  he  leads  us,  in  virtue  of  an  overwhelm- 
ing concurrence  of  Egyptian  records  and  of  all  the 
probabilities  of  the  case,  to  place  the  exodus  as  late 
as  1320  or  1314.  The  event  is  more  natural  in  Egypt's 
decline  imder  Menephthah,  the  exiled  son  of  the  great 
Ramses,  than  amidst  the  splendor  of  the  eighteenth 
dynasty.  It  cannot  well  have  been  earlier,  or  the 
Book  of  Judges  must  have  mentioned  the  conquest  of 
Canaan  by  Ramses  ;  nor  later,  for  then  Joshua  would 
come  in  collision  with  the  new  empire  of  Ninus  and 
Semiramis.  But  Manetho  places  under  Menephthah 
what  seems  the  Egyptian  version  of  the  event ;  and 
the  year  1314,  one  of  our  alternatives,  is  the  date 
assigned  it  by  Jewish  tradition.  Not  only  is  the  his- 
torical reality  of  the  exodus  thus  vindicated  against 
the  dreams  of  the  Drummonds  and  the  Volneys,  but  a 
new  interest  is  given  it  by  its  connection  with  the 
rise  and  fall  of  great  empires.  We  can  understand 
how  the  ruin  on  which  Ninus  rose  made  room  in  Ca- 
naan for  the  Israelites,  and  how  they  fell  again  under 
the  satraps  of  the  new  empire,  who  appear  in  the 
Book  of  Judges  as  kings  of  the  provinces.  Only,  if 
we  accept  the  confirmation,  we  must  take  all  its  parts. 
Manetho  makes  the  conquerors  before  whom  Meneph- 
thah retreats  into  Ethiopia  Syrian  shepherds ;  and 
gives  the  human  side  of  an  invasion,  or  war  of  libera- 
tion.*    Baron  Bunsen  notices  the  "  high  hand  "   with 

*  vo^ov  edcTO  fJ.ijT€  irpoo-Kwelv  Qeovs  •  .  •  avudrrTeadai  6e  fir}8ev\ 
ttKtjv  Totv  crvvco  fxo(riiev(ov'  avrbs  be  .  .  .  eTref^yj/e  Trpe  cr/3eis'  npos 
Tovs  VTVO  Tedficoarecos  drreXaOevras  notuhas  .  .  •  Kul  rj^iov  (rvveiri- 


BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  EESEAECHES.  67 

which  Jehovah  led  forth  his  people,  the  spoiling  of 
the  Egyptians,  and  the  lingering  in  the  peninsula,  as 
signs,  even  in  the  Bible,  of  a  struggle  conducted  by 
human  means.  Thus,  as  the  pestilence  of  the  Book 
of  Kings  becomes  in  Chronicles  the  more  visible  an- 
gel ;  so  the  avenger  who  slew  the  first-born  may  have 
been  the  Bedouin  host,  akin  nearly  to  Jethro, 'and 
more  remotely  to  Israel. 

So,  in  the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea,  the  description 
may  be  interpreted  with  the  latitude  of  poetry  ; 
though,  as  it  is  not  affirmed  that  Pharaoh  was 
drowned,  it  is  no  serious  objection  that  Egyptian  au- 
thorities continue  the  reign  of  Menephthah  later.  A 
greater  difficulty  is,  that  we  find  but  three  centuries 
thus  left  us  from  the  exodus  to  Solomon's  Temple. 
Yet  less  stress  will  be  laid  on  this  by  whoever  notices 
how  the  numbers  in  the  Book  of  Judges  proceed  by 
the  Eastern  round  number  of  forty,  what  traces  the 
whole  book  bears  of  embodying  history  in  its  most 
popular  form,  and  how  naturally  St.  Paul  or  St.  Ste- 
phen would  speak  after  received  accounts. 

It  is  not  the  importance  severally,  but  the  continual 
recurrence  of  such  difficulties,  which  bears  with  ever- 
growing induction  upon  the  question,  whether  the 
Pentateuch  is  of  one  age  and  hand,  and  whether  sub- 
sequent books  are  contemporary  with  the  events,  or 
whether  the  whole  literature  grew  like  a  tree  rooted 
in  the  varying  thoughts  of  successive  generations  ; 
and  whether  traces  of  editorship,  if  not  of  composi- 
tion, between  the  ages  of  Solomon  and  Hezekiah,  are 
manifest  to  whoever  will  recognize  them.  Baron 
Bunsen  finds  himself  compelled  to  adopt  the  alter- 

(7-rpareveii/,  kt.\.    Manetlio,  apudJos.  c.  Apion.    The  whole  passage 
has  the  stamp  of  genume  history. 


68  BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  EESEARCHES. 

native  of  gradual  growth.  He  makes  the  Pentateuch 
Mosaic,  as  indicating  the  mind  and  embodying  the 
developed  system  of  Moses,  rather  than  as  written  by 
the  great  lawgiver's  hand.  Numerous  fragments  of 
genealogy,  of  chronicle,  and  of  spiritual  song,  go  up 
to  a  high  antiquity,  but  are  embedded  in  a  crust  of 
later  narrative,  the  allusions  of  which  betray  at  least 
a  time  when  kings  were  established  in  Israel.  Hence 
the  idea  of  composition  out  of  older  materials  must 
be  admitted ;  and  it  may,  in  some  cases,  be  conceived 
that  the  compiler's  point  of  view  differed  from  that  of 
the  older  pieces,  which  yet  he  faithfully  preserved. 
If,  the  more  any  one  scrutinizes  the  sacred  text,  the 
more  he  finds  himself  impelled  to  these  or  like  con- 
clusions respecting  it,  the  accident  of  such  having 
been  alleged  by  men  more  critical  than  devout  should 
not  make  Christians  shrink  from  them.  We  need  not 
fear  that  what  God  has  permitted  to  be  true  in  his- 
tory can  be  at  war  with  the  faith  in  himself  taught  us 
by  his  Son. 

As,  in  his  "  Egypt,"  our  author  sifts  the  historical 
date  of  the  Bible,  so,  in  his  "  Gott  in  der  Geschichte,"  * 
he  expounds  its  directly  religious  element.  Lament- 
ing, like  Pascal,  the  wretchedness  of  our  feverish  be- 
ing, v/hen  estranged  from  its  eternal  stay,  he  traces, 
as  a  countryman  of  Hegel,  the  Divine  Thought  bring- 
ing order  out  of  confusion.  Unlike  the  despairing 
school,  who  forbid  us  trust  in  God  or  in  conscience, 
unless  we  kill  our  souls  with  literalism,  he  finds  salva- 
tion for  men  and  States,  only  in  becoming  acquainted 
with  the  Author  of  our  life,  by  whose  reason  the  world 
stands  fast,  whose  stamp  we  bear  in  our  forethought, 

*  Gott  in  der  Geschichte  (i.  e.  the  Divine  Government  in  History).  Books 
i.  and  ii.    Leipzig,  1857. 


BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  RESEARCHES.  69 

and  whose  voice  our  conscience  echoes.  In  the  Bi- 
ble, as  an  expression  of  devout  reason,  and  therefore 
to  be  read  with  reason  in  freedom,  he  finds  record  of 
the  spiritual  giants  whose  experience  generated  the 
religious  atmosphere  we  breathe.  For,  as  in  law  and 
literature,  so  in  religion,  we  are  debtors  to  our  ances- 
tors :  but  their  life  must  find  in  us  a  kindred  appre- 
hension, else  it  would  not  quicken  ;  and  we  must 
give  back  what  we  have  received,  or  perish  by  unfaith- 
fulness to  our  trust.  Abraham,  the  friend  of  God; 
Moses,  the  inspired  patriot ;  Elijah,  the  preacher  of 
the  still  small  voice  ;  and  Jeremiah,  the  foreseer  of  a 
law  written  on  the  conscience,  —  are  not  ancestors  of 
Pharisees  who  inherit  their  flesh  and  flame,  so  much 
as  of  kindred  spirits  who  put  trust  in  a  righteous  God 
above  offerings  of  blood ;  who  build  up  free  nations  by 
wisdom  ;  who  speak  truth  in  simplicity,  though  four 
hundred  priests  cry  out  for  falsehood  ;  and  who  make 
self-examination  before  the  Searcher  of  hearts  more 
sacred  than  the  confessional.  When  the  fierce  ritual 
of  Syria,  with  the  awe  of  a  Divine  voice,  bade  Abra- 
ham slay  his  son,  he  did  not  reflect  that  he  had  no 
perfect  theory  of  the  absolute  to  justify  him  in  de- 
parting from  traditional  revelation,  but  trusted  that 
the  Father,  whose  voice  from  heaven  he  heard  at 
heart,  was  better  pleased  with  mercy  than  with  sacri- 
fice ;  and  this  trust  was  his  righteousness.  Its  seed 
was  sown  from  heaven  ;  but  it  grew  in  the  soil  of  an 
honest  and  good  heart.  So  in  each  case  we  trace 
principles  of  reason  and  right,  to  which  our  heart 
perpetually  responds,  and  our  response  to  which  is  a 
truer  sign  of  faith  than  such  deference  to  a  supposed 
external  authority  as  would  quench  these  principles 
themselves. 


70  BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  EESEAECHES. 

It  may  be  thought  that  Baron  Bunsen  ignores  too 
peremptorily  the  sacerdotal  element  in  the  Bible,  for- 
getting how  it  moulded  the  form  of  the  history.  He 
certainly  separates  the  Mosaic  institutions  from  Egyp- 
tian affinity  more  than  our  Spencer  and  Warburton 
would  permit;  more,  it  seems,  than  Hengstenberg 
considers  necessary.  But  the  distinctively  Mosaic 
is,  with  him,  not  the  ritual,  but  the  spiritual,  which 
generated  the  other,  but  was  overlaid  by  it.  Moses, 
he  thinks,  would  gladly  have  founded  a  free  religious 
society,  in  which  the  primitive  tables,  written  by  the 
Divine  finger  on  man's  heart,  should  have  been  law ; 
but  the  rudeness  or  hardness  of  his  people's  heart 
compelled  him  to  a  sacerdotal  system  and  formal 
tablets  of  stone.  In  favor  of  this  view,  it  may  be 
remarked,  that  the  tone  of  some  passages  in  Exodus 
appears  less  sacerdotal  than  that  of  later  books  in  the 
Pentateuch.  But,  be  this  as  it  may,  the  truly  Mosaic 
(according  to  our  author)  is  not  the  Judaic,  but  the 
essentially  human  ;  and  it  is  not  the  Semitic  form, 
often  divergent  from  our  modes  of  conception,  but  the 
eternal  truths  of  a  righteous  God,  and  of  the  spiritual 
sacrifices  with  which  he  is  pleased,  that  we  ought  to 
recognize  as  most  characteristic  of  the  Bible  ;  and 
these  truths  the  same  Spirit  which  spoke  of  old,  speaks, 
through  all  variety  of  phrase,  in  ourselves. 

That  there  was  a  Bible  before  our  Bible,  and  that 
some  of  our  present  books  —  as  certainly  Genesis  and 
Joshua,  and  perhaps  Job,  Jonah,  Daniel — are  expanded 
from  simpler  elements,  is  indicated  in  the  book  before 
us  rather  than  proved  as  it  might  be.  Fuller  details 
may  be  expected  in  the  course  of  the  revised  "  Bible 
for  the  People,"*  —  that  grand  enterprise,  of  which 

*  Bibel-werk  fiir  die  Gemeimle.    I.  and  11.     Leipzig,  1858. 


BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  RESEARCHES.  71 

three  parts  have  now  appeared.  So  far  as  it  has 
gone,  some  amended  renderings  have  interest,  but  are 
less  important  than  the  survey  of  the  whole  subject 
in  the  Introduction.  The  word  "  Jehovah  "  has  its 
deep  significance  brought  out  by  being  rendered  "  the 
Eternal."  The  famous  Shiloh  (Gen  xlix.  10)  is 
taken  in  its  local  sense,  as  the  sanctuary  where  the 
young  Samuel  was  trained  ;  which,  if  doctrinal  per- 
versions did  not  interfere,  hardly  any  one  would  doubt 
to  be  the  true  sense.  The  three  opening  verses  of 
Genesis  are  treated  as  side-clmises  ("  ivhen  God  cre- 
ated," &c.)  ;  so  that  the  first  direct  utterance  of  the 
Bible  is  in  the  fourth  verse,  "  God  said,  Let  there 
BE  LIGHT."  Striking  as  this  is,  the  Hebrew  permits 
rather  than  requires  it.  Less  admissible  is  the  divi- 
sion after  ver.  4  of  the  second  chapter ;  as  if  "  This  is 
the  history  "  was  a  summary  of  what  precedes,  instead 
of  an  announcement  of  what  follows.  But  the  first 
verse  of  the  second  chapter  belongs  properly  to  the 
preceding.  Sometimes  the  translator  seems  right  in 
substance  but  wrong  in  detail.  He  rightly  rejects 
the  perversions  which  make  the  cursing  Psalms  evan- 
gelically inspired ;  but  he  forgets  that  the  bitterest 
curses  of  Ps.  cix.  (from  verse  6  to  19)  are  not  the 
Psalmist's  own,  but  a  speech  in  the  month  of  his 
adversary.  These  are  trifles,  when  compared  with 
the  mass  of  information,  and  the  manner  of  wielding 
it,  in  the  prefaces  to  the  work.  There  is  a  grasp  of 
materials  and  a  breadth  of  view  from  which  the  most 
practised  theologian  may  learn  something,  and  persons 
least  versed  in  biblical  studies  acquire  a  comprehen- 
sive idea  of  them.  Nothing  can  be  more  dishonest 
than  the  affectation  of  contempt  with  which  some  Eng- 
lish critics  endea^:ored  to  receive  this  instalment  of 


72  BUNSEN'S   BIBLICAL  RESEARCHES. 

a  glorious  work.  To  sneer  at  demonstrated  criticisms 
as  "  old,"  and  to  brand  fresh  discoveries  as  "  new," 
is  worthy  of  men  who  neither  understand  the  Old 
Testament  nor  love  the  New ;  but  they  to  whom  the 
Bible  is  dear  for  the  truth's  sake  will  Avisli  its  illustri- 
ous translator  life  to  accomplish  a  task  as  worthy  of  a 
Christian  statesman's  retirement  as  the  Tusculans  of 
Cicero  were  of  the  representative  of  Rome's  lost  free- 
dom. 

Already,  in  the  volume  before  mentioned.  Baron 
Bunsen  has  exhibited  the  Hebrew  prophets  as  wit- 
nesses to  the  Divine  Government.  To  estimate  aright 
his  services  in  this  province  would  require,  from  most 
Englishmen,  years  of  study.  Accustomed  to  be  told 
that  modern  history  is  expressed  by  the  prophets  in 
a  riddle,  which  requires  only  a  key  to  it,  they  are 
disappointed  to  hear  of  moral  lessons,  however  impor- 
tant. Such  notions  are  the  inheritance  of  days  when 
Justin  could  argue,  in  good  faith,  that  by  "  the  riches 
of  Damascus  and  the  spoil  of  Samaria"  were  intended 
the  Magi  and  their  gifts,  and  that  "  the  King  of  As- 
syria "  signified  King  Herod  (!)  ;  *  or  when  Jerome 
could  say,  "  No  one  doubts  that  by  Chaldeans  are 
meant  demons,"!  and  the  Shunammite  Abishag  could 
be  no  other  than  heavenly  wisdom,  for  the  honor  of 
David's  old  age,  J  —  not  to  mention  such  things  as 
Lot's  daughters  symbolizing  the  Jewish  and  Gentile 


*  Isa.  viii.  4.  Tryplio,  §  77,  8,  9.  Well  might  Trj^pho  answer,  that  such 
mterpretations  are  strained,  if  not  blasphemous. 

t  On  Isa.  xliii.  14,  15,  and  again  on  chap,  xlviii.  12-16.  He  also  shows 
on  xlviii.  22,  that  the  Jews  of  that  day  had  not  lost  the  historical  sense  of 
their  prophecies,  though  mystical  renderings  had  already  shown  themselves. 
But  the  later  mysticists  charitably  prayed  for  Hillel,  because  his  expositions 
had  been  historical  (see  Pearson'"s  Notes  on  Art.  iii.)  When  will  o«r  mys- 
ticists  show  as  Christian  a  temper  as  the  Jewish  ones?  Condonet  Dominus 
hoc  R.  Ilillel! 

X  To  Nepotian,  Letter  52. 


BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  RESEARCHES.  73 

cluirclies.*  It  was  truly  felt  by  the  early  Fathers, 
that  Hebrew  prophecy  tended  to  a  system  more  spirit- 
ual than  that  of  Levi ;  and  they  argued  unanswerably, 
that  circumcision  and  the  sabbath  f  were  symbols  for 
a  time,  or  means  to  ends.  But  when,  instead  of  using 
the  letter  as  an  instrument  of  the  spirit,  they  began 
to  accept  the  letter  in  all  its  parts  as  their  law,  and 
twisted  it  into  harmony  with  the  details  of  gospel  his- 
tory, they  fell  into  inextricable  contradictions.  The 
most  rational  interpreter  among  them  is  Jerome,  and 
the  perusal  of  his  criticisms  is  their  ample  confuta- 
tion. J  Nor  could  the  strong  intellect  of  Augustine 
compensate  for  his  defect  of  little  Greek,  which  he 
shared  with  half,  and  of  less  Hebrew,  which  he  shared 
with  most  of  the  Fathers.  But  with  the  revival  of 
learning  began  a  reluctant  and  wavering  yet  inevit- 
able retreat  from  the  details  of  patristic  exposition, 
accompanied  with  some  attempts  to  preserve  its  spirit. 
Even  Erasmus  looked  that  way ;  Luther's  and  Calvin's 
strong  sense  impelled  them  some  strides  in  the  same 
direction :  but  Grotius,  who  outweighs,  as  a  critic,  any 
ten  opposites,  went  boldly  on  the  road.  Li  our  own 
country,  each  successive   defence  of  the  prophecies, 


*  Presbyter!  apud  Irenaeum. 

t  Trypho,  §  41  -  43.  This  tract  of  Justin's  shows  strikingly  a  transition 
from  the  utmost  evangelical  freedom,  with  simplicity  of  thought,  to  a  more 
learned  but  confused  speculation  and  literalism.  He  still  thinks  reason  a 
revelation,  Socrates  a  Christian,  prophecy  a  necessary  and  perpetual  gift  of 
God's  people,  circumcision  temporary,  because  not  natural;  and  lustral  wash- 
ings, whicli  he  contrasts  with  mental  baptism,  superstitious.  His  view  of 
the  sabbath  is  quite  St.  Paul's.  His  making  a  millennial  resun-ection  the 
Christian  doctrine,  as  opposed  to  the  Heathen  immortality  of  the  soul,  is 
embarrassing,  but  perhaps  primitive.  But  his  scriptural  interpretations 
are  dreams,  and  his  charge  against  the  Jews  of  cornipting  the  prophets  as 
suicidal  as  it  is  groundless. 

X  Thus  he  makes  Isaac's  hundred-fold  increase  (Gen.  xxvi.  12)  mean 
"  multiplication  of  virtues,"  because  no  grain  is  specified !  —  Qucest.  Hebraic, 
in  Gen.,  chap.  xxvi.  When  Jerome  Origenizes,  he  is  worse  than  Origen, 
because  he  does  not,  like  that  great  genius,  distinguish  the  historical  from, 
the  mystical  sense. 

4 


74  BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  RESEARCHES. 

in  proportion  as  its  author  was  able,  detracted  some- 
thing from  the  extent  of  literal  prognostication  ;  and 
either  laid  stress  on  the  moral  element,  or  urged  a 
/second,  as  the  spiritual  sense.  Even  Butler  foresaw 
'  the  possibility,  that  every  prophecy  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment might  have  its  elucidation  in  contemporaneous 
history  ;  but  literature  was  not  his  strong  point,  and 
he  turned  aside,  endeavoring  to  limit  it,  from  an 
unwelcome  idea.  Bishop  Chandler  is  said  to  have 
thought  twelve  passages  in  the  Old  Testament  directly 
Messianic :  others  restricted  this  character  to  five. 
Paley  ventures  to  quote  only  one.  Bishop  Kidder* 
conceded  freely  an  historical  sense  in  Old  Testament 
texts,  remote  from  adaptations  in  the  New.  The  apos- 
tolic Middleton  pronounced  firmly  for  the  same  prin- 
ciple. Archbishop  Newcome  f  and  others  proved  in 
detail  its  necessity.  Coleridge,  in  a  suggestive  letter, 
preserved  in  the  memoirs  of  Cary,  the  translator  of 
Dante,  threw  secular  prognostication  altogether  out 
of  the  idea  of  prophecy.^  Dr.  Arnold  and  his  truest 
followers  bear,  not  always  consistently,  on  the  same 
side.  On  the  other  hand,  the  declamatory  assertions, 
so  easy  in  pulpits  or  on  platforms,  and  aided  some- 
times by  powers,  which  produce  silence  rather  than 
conviction,  have  not  only  kept  alive,  but  magnified 


*  Collected  in  the  "  Boyle  Lectures." 

t  A  Literal  Translation  of  the  Prophets,  from  Isaiah  to  Malachi,  with. 
Notes,  by  Lowth,  Blayney,  Newcome,  Wintle,  Horsley,  &c.;  London,  1836, 
—  a  book  unequal,  bi;t  useful  for  want  of  a  better;  and  of  which  a  revision, 
if  not  an  entire  recast,  with  the  aid  of  recent  expositors,  might  employ  our 
biblical  scholars. 

J  "  Of  prophecies  in  the  sense  of  prorpiostlcation  I  utterly  deny  that  there 
is  any  instance  delivered  by  one  of  the  illustrious  Diadoche,  whom  the  Jew- 
ish Church  comprised  in  the  name  '  Prophets ; '  and  I  shall  regard  Cyrns  as 
an  exception,  when  I  believe  the  hundred  and  thirty-seventh  Psalm  to  have 
been  composed  by  David.  .  .  .  Nay,  I  will  go  further,  and  assert  that  the 
contrary  belief,  the  hypothesis  of  prognostication,  is  in  irreconcilable  oppug- 
nancv  to  our  Lord's  declaration,  that  the  limes  hath  the  Father  reserved  to 
himself."  —  Menwir  of  Cary,  vol.  ii.  p.  180. 


BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  RESEARCHES.  75 

with  uncritical  exaggeration,  whatever  the  Fathers 
had  dreamt  or  modern  rhetoric  could  add,  tend- 
ing to  make  prophecy  miraculous.  Keith's  edition 
of  Newton  need  not  be  here  discussed.  Davison  of 
Oriel,  with  admirable  skill,  threw  his  argument  into  a 
series,  as  it  were,  of  hypothetical  syllogisms,  with  only 
the  defect  (wliich  some  readers  overlook),  that  his 
minor  premise  can  hardly,  in  a  single  instance,  be 
proved.  Yet  the  stress  which  he  lays  on  the  moral 
element  of  prophecy  atones  for  his  sophistry  as  regards 
the  predictive.  On  the  whole,  even  in  England,  there 
is  a  wide  gulf  between  the  arguments  of  our  genuine 
critics,  with  the  convictions  of  our  most  learned  clergy 
on  the  one  side,  and  the  assumptions  of  popular  dec- 
lamation on  the  other.  This  may  be  seen  on  a  com- 
parison of  Kidder  with  Keith.*  But  in  Germany 
there  has  been  a  pathway  streaming  with  light,  from 
Eichhorn  to  Ewald,  aided  by  the  poetical  penetration 
of  Herder  and  the  philological  researches  of  Gesenius, 
throughoiit  which  the  value  of  the  moral  element  in 
prophecy  has  been  progressively  raised,  and  that  of 
the  directly  predictive,  whether  secular  or  Messianic, 
has  been  lowered.     Even  the  conservatism  of  Jahn 

*  Amongst  recent  authors,  Dr.  Palfrey,  an  American  scholar,  has  ex- 
pounded in  five  learned  volumes  the  difficulties  in  cuiTent  traditions  about 
prophecy;  but,  instead  of  remedying  these  by  restricting  the  idea  of  revela- 
tion to  Moses  and  the  Gospels,  he'  would  have' done  better  to  seek  a  definition 
of  revelation  which  should  apply  to  the  Psalms  and  Prophets  and  Epistles. i 

Mr.  Francis  Newman,  in  his  "  Hebrew  Monarchy,"  is  historically  con- 
sistent in  his  expositions,  which  have  not  been  controverted  by  any  serious 
argument:  but  his  mind  seems  to  fail  in  the  ideal  element;  else  he  would 
see  that  the  typical  ideas  (of  patience  or  of  glory)  in  the  Old  Testament 
find  their  culminating  fulfilment  in  the  New. 

Mr.  IMansel's  "  Bampton  Lectures"  must  make  even  those  who  value 
his  argument  regret,  that  to  his  acknowledged  dialectical  ability  he  has  not 
added  the  rudim'ents  of  biblical  criticism.  In  all  Inis  volume,  not  one  text  of 
Scripture  is  elucidated,  nor  a  single  difficulty  in  the  evidences  of  Christianity 
removed.  Recognized  mistranslationii  and  misreadings  are  alleged  as  argu- 
ments, and  passages  from  the  Old  Testament  are  employed  without  refer- 

1  This  is  an  oversight  or  pxx  error  on  the  part  of  Dr.  Williams.  Dr.  Palfrey  recog- 
nizes no  sucli  difference  between  the  Gtospels  and  Epistles.—  Chnstian  Examiner^ 
Nov.  1860. 


76  BUNSEN'S   BIBLICAL  EESEARCHES. 

amongst  Romanists,  and  of  Hengstenberg  amongst 
Protestants,  is  free  and  rational,  compared  to  what  is 
often  in  this  country  required  with  denunciation,  but 
seldom  defended  by  argument. 

To  this  inheritance  of  opinion  Baron  Bunsen  suc- 
ceeds. Knowing  these  things,  and  writing  for  men 
who  know  them,  he  has  neither  the  advantage  in 
argument  of  unique  knowledge  nor  of  unique  igno- 
rance. He  dare  not  say,  though  it  was  formerly  said, 
that  David  foretold  the  exile,  because  it  is  mentioned 
in  the  Psalms.  He  cannot  quote  Nahum  denounc- 
ing ruin  against  Nineveh,  or  Jeremiah  against  Tyre, 
without  remembering  that  already  the  Babylonian 
power  threw  its  shadow  across  Asia,  and  Nebuchad- 
nezzar was  mustering  his  armies.  If  he  would  quote 
the  Book  of  Isaiah,  he  cannot  conceal,  after  Gesenius, 
Ewald,  and  Maurer  have  written,  that  the  book  is 
composed  of  elements  of  different  eras.  Finding 
Perso-Babylonian  or  new-coined  words,  such  as  sagans 
for  officers,  and  Chaldaic  forms  of  the  Hebrew  verb, 
such  as  Aphel  for  Hiphil,  in  certain  portions  ;  and 
observing  that  the  political  horizon  of  these  portions 
is  that  of  the  sixth  century,  while  that  of  the  elder 
or   more   purely   Hebraic   portions   belonged   to    the 


ence  to  the  illustration  or  inversion  which  they  have  received  in  the  New. 
Hence,  as  the  eristic  arts  of  logic  without  knowledge  of  the  subject-matter 
become  powerless,  the  author  is  a  mere  gladiator  hitting  in  the  dark,  and 
his  blows  fall  heaviest  on  what  it  was  his  duty  to  defend.  As  to  his  main 
argument  (surely  a  strange  parody  of  Butler),  the  sentence  from  Sir  W. 
Ihimilton,  prefixed  to  his  volume,  seems  to  me  its  gem  and  its  confutation. 
Of  the  i-easoniny,  which  would  bias  our  interpretation  of  Isaiah  by  telling 
us  Feuerbach  was  an  Athiest,  I  need  not  say  a  word. 

We  are  promised  from  Oxford  further  elucidations  of  the  Minor  Prophets 
by  the  Regius  Professor  of  Hebrew,  whose  book  seems  launched  sufficiently 
to  catch  the  gales  of  friendship,  without  yet  tempting  out  of  harbor  the 
blasts  of  criticism.  Let  us  liope  that,  when  the  work  appears,  its  interpre- 
tations may  differ  from  those  of  a  "'  Catena  Aurea,"  published  under  high 
auspices  in  the  same  university,  in  which  the  narrative  of  Uriah  tlie  Hittite 
is  improved  by  making  David  repi'csent  Cin-ist,  and  Uriah  symbolize  the 
Devil;  so  that 'the  grievous  crime  which  "  displeased  the  Lord"  becomes  a 
typical  prophecy  of  Him  who  Avas  harmless  and  undefiled ! 


BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  EESEARCHES.  77 

eighth, — he  must  accept  a  theory  of  authorship  and 
of  prediction  modified  accordingly.  So,  if,  under  the 
head  of  Zechariah,  he  finds  three  distinct  styles  and 
aspects  of  affairs,  he  must  acknowledge  so  much, 
whether  he  is  right  or  wrong,  in  conjecturing  the 
elder  Zechariah  of  the  age  of  Isaiah  to  have  written 
the  second  portion,  and  Uriah,  in  Jeremiah's  age,  the 
third.  If  he  would  quote  Micah,  as  designating  Beth- 
lehem for  the  birthplace  of  the  Messiah,  he  cannot 
shut  his  eyes  to  the  fact,  that  the  Deliverer  to  come 
from  thence  was  to  be  a  contemporary  shield  against 
the  Assyrian.  If  he  would  follow  Pearson  in  quoting 
the  second  Psalm :  "  Thou  art  my  son,"  he  knows 
that  Hebrew  idiom  convinced  even  Jerome  *  the  true 
rendering  was,  "  Worship  purely."  He  may  read  in 
Ps.  xxxiv.  that  "  not  a  bone  of  the  righteous  shall  be 
broken;"  but  he  must  feel  a  difficulty  in  detaching 
this  from  the  context,  so  as  to  make  it  a  prophecy 
of  the  crucifixion.  If  he  accepts  mere  versions  of 
Ps.  xxii.  17,  he  may  wonder  how  "  piercing  the  hands 
and  the  feet "  can  fit  into  the  whole  passage  :  but,  if 
he  prefers  the  most  ancient  Hebrew  reading,  he  finds, 
instead  of  '^ piercing', ^^  the  comparison  "  like  a  lion  ;  " 
and  tliis  corresponds  sufficiently  with  the  "  dogs  "  of 
the  first  clause  ;  though  a  morally  certain  emendation 
would  make  the  parallel  more  perfect  by  reading  the 
word  "  lions  "  in  both  clauses. f  In  either  case,  the 
staring  monsters  are  intended  by  whom  Israel  is  sur- 
rounded and  torn.  Again,  he  finds  in  Hosea  that 
the  Lord  loved  Israel  when  he  was  young,  and  called 


*  "Cavillatur  .  .  .  qixod  posuerim  .  .  .  Adoratepure,  .  .  .  ne  violentus 
viderer  interpres,  et  Jud.  locum  davem."  — Eieron.  c.  Ruffin.,  §  19. 

t  By  reading  D'i^'':3SD  for  O'IdSd-  The  Septuagint  version  may  have 
arisen  from  ^JU'pn?  token  as  from  np> 


78  BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  EESEARCHES. 

him  out  of  Egypt  to  be  his  son  ;  but  he  must  feel, 
with  Bisliop  Kidder,  that  such  a  citation  is  rather 
accommodated  to  the  flight  of  Joseph  into  Egypt, 
than  a  prediction  to  be  a  ground  of  argument.  Fresh 
from  the  services  of  Christmas,  he  may  sincerely  ex- 
claim, "  Unto  us  a  child  is  born  :  "  but  he  knows  that 
the  Hebrew,  translated  "  Mighty  God,"  is  at  least  dis- 
putable ;  that  perhaps  it  means  only  "  Strong  and 
Mighty  One,"  "  Father  of  an  Age  ;  "  and  he  can  never 
listen  to  any  one  who  pretends  that  the  maiden's 
child  of  Isa.  vii.  14  was  not  to  be  born  in  the  reign 
of  Ahaz,  as  a  sign  against  the  kings  Pekah  and  Rezin. 
In  the  case  of  Daniel,  he  may  doubt  whether  all  parts 
of  the  book  are  of  one  age,  or  what  is  the  starting- 
point  of  the  seventy  weeks  ;  but  two  results  are  clear 
beyond  fair  doubt,  —  that  the  period  of  weeks  ended 
in  the  reign  of  Antiochus  Epiplianes,  and  that  those 
portions  of  the  book  supposed  to  be  specially  pre- 
dictive are  a  history  of  past  occurrences  up  to  that 
reign.  When  so  vast  an  induction  on  the  destructive 
side  has  been  gone  through,  it  avails  little  that  some 
passages  may  be  doubtful,  —  one  perhaps  in  Zecha- 
riah,  and  one  in  Isaiah,  capable  of  being  made  directly 
Messianic  ;  and  a  chapter,  possibly,  in  Deuteronomy, 
foreshadowing  the  final  fall  of  Jerusalem.  Even  these 
few  cases,  the  remnant  of  so  much  confident  rhetoric, 
tend  to  melt,  if  they  are  not  already  melted,  in  the 
crucible  of  searcliing  inquiry.  If  our  German  had 
ignored  all  that  the  masters  of  philology  have  proved 
on  these  subjects,  his  countrymen  would  liave  raised 
a  storm  of  ridicule,  at  which  he  must  have  drowned 
himself  in  the  Neckar. 

Great,  then,  is  Baron  Bunsen's  merit,  in  accepting 
frankly  the  belief  of  scholars,  and  yet  not  despairing 


BUNSEN'S   BIBLICAL  ELSE  ARCHES.  79 

of  Hebrew  prophecy  as  a  witness  to  the  kingdom  of 
God.     The  way  of  doing  so,  left  open  to  him,  was 
to  show,  pervading  the  prophets,  those  deep  truths  ; 
which  lie  at  the  heart  of  Christianity  ;  and  to  trace 
the  growth  of  such  ideas  —  the  belief  in  a  righteous 
God,  and  the  nearness  of  man  to  God ;  the  power  of 
prayer,  and  the  victory  of  self-sacrificing  patience,  ever 
expanding  in  men's  hearts  —  until  the  fulness  of  time 
came,  and  the  ideal  of  the  Divine  Thought  was  ful- 
filled in  the  Son  of  man.     Such,  accordingly,  is  the 
course  our  author  pursues,  not  with  the  critical  finish 
of  Ewald,  but  with  large  moral  grasp.    Why  he  should 
add  to  his  moral  and  metaphysical  basis  of  prophecy  a 
notion  of  foresight  by  vision  of  particulars  or  a  kind 
of  clairvoyance,  though  he  admits  it  to  be  *  a  natural 
gift,  consistent  with  fallibility,  is  not  so  easy  to  ex- 
plain.    One  would  wish  he  might  have  intended  only  | 
the  power  of  seeing  the  ideal  in  the  actual,  or  of  ' 
tracing  the  Divine  Government  in  the  movements  of  j 
men.      He  seems  to  mean  more  than  presentiment// 
or  sagacity ;  and  this  element  in  his  system  requires' 
proof. 

The  most  brilliant  portion  of  the  prophetical  essays 
is  the  treatment  of  the  later  Isaiah.  With  the  inser- 
tion of  four  chapters,  concerning  Hezekiah,  from  the 
histories  of  the  kings,  the  words  and  deeds  of  the  elder 
Isaiah  apparently  close.  It  does  not  follow  that  all 
the  prophecies  arranged  earlier  in  the  book  are  from 
his  lips  ;  probably  they  are  not :  but  it  is  clear  to 


*  "  Die  Kraft  des  Schaiiens,  die  im  Menschen  verborgen  liegt,  und,  von 
der  Naturnothwendigkeit  befreit,  im  hebriiischen  Proplietenthum  sicli  zur 
•wahreii  ^Veltanschauung  eriioben  hat,  .  .  .  ist  der  Schliissel,"  &c.  —  Golt  in 
der  Geschichte,  p.  149. 

"  Jene-  Herri ichkeit  bestelit  nicht  in  dem  Vorhersagen.  .  .  .  Dieses  habea 
sie  gemein  mit  inane  lien  Aussprlichen  der  Pytliia,  .  .  .  und  mit  vieleu 
Weissagungeu  der  Hellselieriunen  dieses  Jahrliu'uderts."  —  Id.  p.  151. 


80  BUNSEN'S   BIBLICAL  ELSE  ARCHES. 

demonstration,*  that  the  later  chapters  (xl.,  &c.)  are 
upon  the  stooping  of  Nebo  and  tlie  bowing-down  of 
Babylon,  when  the  Lord  took  out  of  the  hand  of  Jeru- 
salem the  cup  of  trembling ;  for  the  glad  tidings  of 
the  decree  of  return  were  heard  upon  the  moun- 
tains, and  the  people  went  forth,  not  with  haste  or 
flight ;  for  their  God  went  before  them,  and  was  their 
rearward  (chap.  lii.).  So  they  went  forth  with  joy, 
and  were  led  forth  with  peace  (chap.  liv.).  ^o  tlie 
arm  of  the  Lord  was  laid  bare  ;  and  his  servant  who 
had  foretold  it  was  now  counted  wise,  though  none 
had  believed  his  report.  We  cannot  take  a  portion 
out  of  this  continuous  song,  and,  by  dividing  it  as  a 
chapter,  separate  its  primary  meaning  from  what  pre- 
cedes and  follows.  The  servant  in  chap.  lii.  and  liii. 
must  have  relation  to  the  servant  in  chap.  xlii.  and 
xlix.  Who  was  this  servant,  that  had  foretold  the 
exile  and  the  return,  and  had  been  a  man  of  grief, 
rejected  of  his  people,  imprisoned  and  treated  as  a 
malefactor  ?  The  oldest  Jewish  tradition,  preserved 
in  Origenf  and  to  be  inferred  from  Justin, J  said  the 
chosen  people,  in  opposition  to  heathen  oppressors ; 
an  opinion  which  suits  chap.  xlix.  ver.  3.  Nor  is 
the  later  §  exposition  of  the  Targum  altogether  at  va- 
riance :  for,  though  Jonathan  speaks  of  the  Messiah, 


*  To  prove  this,  let  any  one  read  Jerome's  arguments  against  it,  if  the 
sacred  text  itself  be  not  sufficient  proof,  —  "  Go  ye  forth  of  Babylon,"  Sec. ; 
chap,  xlviii.  20. 

t  C.  Cclsum,  i.  55  (quoted  by  Pearson). 

I  For,  in  making  the  Gentiles  mean  proselytes,  they  must  have  made  the 
servant  Israel.  oKka  t'l  ;  ov  npos  rov  vofxov  Xeyci,  Koi  tovs  (Jxoti^O" 
fievovs  vrr    avTov,  k.  r.  X.  —  Trypho,  ^  122. 

§  Later,  because  it  implies  the  fall  of  Jerusalem.  It  is  thought  to  have 
been  compiled  in  the  fourth  century  of  our  era.  It  is  very  doubtful  whether 
the  Jewish  schools  of  tlie  middle  ages  had,  except  in  fragments,  any  her- 
meneutic  tradition  so  old  as  what  we  gather  from  the  Church  Fathers,  how- 
ever uufairly  this  may  be  reported.  Sly  own  belief  is  clear,  that  they  had 
not. 


BUNSEN'S   BIBLICAL  EESEARCHES.  81 

it  is  in  the  character  of  a  Judaic  deliverer ;  and  his 
expressions  about  "  the  holy  people's  being  multi- 
jDlied "  and  seeing  their  sanctuary  rebuilt,  especially 
when  he  calls  the  holy  people  a  "  remnant,"  *  may  be 
fragments  of  a  tradition  older  than  his  time.  It  is 
idle,  with  Pearson, f  to  quote  Jonathan  as  a  witness  to 
the  Christian  interpretation,  unless  his  conception  of 
the  Messiah  were  ours.  But  the  idea  of  the  Anointed 
One,  which  in  some  of  the  Psalms  belongs  to  Israel, 
shifted  from  time  to  time ;  being  applied,  now  to 
people,  and  now  to  king  or  prophet,  until  at  length 
it  assumed  a  sterner  form,  as  the  Jewish  spirit  was 
hardened  by  persecutions  into  a  more  vindicative  hope. 
The  first  Jewish  expositor  who  loosened  without  break- 
ing Rabbinical  fetters,  R.  Saadiah,J  in  the  ninth  cen- 
tury, named  Jeremiah  as  the  man  of  grief,  and  em- 
phatically the  prophet  of  the  return,  rejected  of  his 
people.  Grotius,  with  his  usual  sagacity,  divined  the 
same  clew ;  though  Michaelis  says  upon  it,  pessime 
Grotius.  Baron  Bunsen  puts  together,  with  masterly 
analysis,  the  illustrative  passages  of  Jeremiah ;  and  it 
is  difficult  to  resist  the  conclusion  to  which  they  tend. 
Jeremiah  compares  his  whole  people  to  sheep  going 
astray  ;  §  and  himself,  to  a  "  lamb  or  an  ox  brought  to 
the  slaughter."  ||  He  was  taken  from  prison,^  and 
his  generation,  or  posterity,  none  took  account  of ;  ** 
he  interceded  for  his  people  in  prayer :  f  f  but  was 
not  the  less  despised  and  a  man  of  grief,  so  that  no 

*N'kynip  niSm  p:D%  and  W-lXiy  n^  r\'12-^'\-—Targwm  ml^^.  Im. 
t  In  Pearson's  hands,  even  the  Rabbins  become  more  Rabbinical.     His 
citations  from  Jonathan  and  from  Jarchi  are  most  unfair,  and  in  general  he 
makes  their  prose  more  prosaic. 

X  Titularly  styled  Gaon.  as  president  of  the  Sora  school. 
\  Jer,  xxi'ii.  f,  2 ;  1.  6  - 17 ;  xii.  3.  ||  Jer.  xi.  19. 

^  Jer.  xxxviii.  4-6,  13;  xxxvii.  16. 
**  Jer.  xi.  19-23;  xx.  10;  xxxvi.  19;  xlv.  2,  3. 
tt  Jer.  xviii.  20;  xiv..  11;  xv.  1. 

4*  P 


82  BUXSEN'S  BIBLICAL  RESEARCHES. 

sorrow  was  like  his ;  *  men  assigned  his  grave  with 
tlie  wicked,!  and  his  tomb  with  the  oppressors  ;  all 
who  followed  him  seemed  cut  off  out  of  the  land  of 
the  living,^  yet  his  seed  prolonged  their  days  ;  §  his 
prophecy  was  fulfilled,  ||  and  the  arm  of  the  Eternal 
laid  bare ;  he  was  counted  wise  on  the  return  ;  his 
place  in  the  Book  of  Sirach  ^  shows  how  eminently 
he  was  enshrined  in  men's  thoughts  as  the  servant  of 
God ;  and  in  the  Book  of  Maccabees  **  he  is  the  gray 
prophet,  who  is  seen  in  vision,  fulfilling  his  task  of 
interceding  for  the  people. 

This  is  an  imperfect  sketch,  but  may  lead  readers  to 
consider  the  arguments  for  applying  Isa.  lii.  and  liii. 
to  Jeremiah.  Their  weight  (in  the  master's  hand)  is 
so  great,  that,  if  any  single  person  should  be  selected, 
they  prove  Jeremiah  should  be  the  one.  Nor  are  they 
a  slight  illustration  of  the  historical  sense  of  that 
famous  chapter,  which  in  the  original  is  a  history. ff 
Still  the  general  analogy  of  the  Old  Testament,  which 
makes  collective  Israel,  or  the  prophetic  remnant, 
especially  the  servant  of  Jehovah,  and  tlie  compar- 
ison of  chap,  xlii.,  xlix.,  may  permit  us  to  think  the 
oldest  interpretation  the  truest ;  with  only  this  admis- 
sion, that  the  figure  of  Jeremiah  stood  forth  amongst 
the  prophets,  and  tinged  the  delineation  of  the  true 
Israel,  —  that  is,  the  faithful  remnant  who  had  been 
disbelieved,  — just  as  the  figure  of  Laud  or  Hammond 

*  Jer.  xviii.  18;  xx.  9-17.     Lam.  iii.  1-13. 

t  Lam.  iii.  52-54.     Jer.  xxvi.  11-15,  23;  xliv.  15,  16;  i.  18,  19. 

X  Jer.  xlv.  1-3;  xi.  19;  xli.  2,  3;  with  xli.  9,  10. 

\  Ps.  cxxvi.  1.     Isa.  xliii.  1-5,  10-14. 

II  Lam.  i.  17.  Jer.  xvi.  15;  xxx.  1-3,  10,  18;  xxxi.  6-12.  Isa.  xliv.  7, 
8;  xlvi.  1-9,10;  1.  5,  6;  lii.  10-13. 

T[  Ecclus.  xlix.  6,  7,  and  Jer.  i.  **  2  Mace.  xv.  13,  14. 

ft  The  tenses  from  yer.  2  onward  are  rather  historical  than  predictive; 
and  in  ver.  8,  for  "he  was  stricken,"  the  Hebrew  is  ij^^  ;^»jii,  the  "stroke 
•was  upon  them;  "  i.  e.  on  the  generation  of  the  faithful,  which  was  cut  off; 
when  the  blood  of  the  prophets  was  shed  on  every  side  of  Jei-usulein. 


BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  RESEARCHES.  83 

might  represent  the  Carohne  Church  in  the  eyes  of 
her  poet. 

If  this  seems  but  a  compromise,  it  may  be  justified 
by  Ewald's  phrase,  "  Die  wenigen  Treuen  im  Exile, 
Jeremjah  und  andre,"  *  though  he  makes  the  servant 
idealized  Israel. 

If  any  sincere  Christian  now  asks,  "Is  not  then, 
our  Saviour  spoken  of  in  Isaiah  ?  "  let  him  open  his 
New  Testament,  and  ask  therewith  John  the  Baptist, 
whether  he  was  Elias.  If  he  finds  the  Baptist  an- 
swering, "  I  am  not,"  yet  our  Lord  testifies  that  in 
spirit  and  power  this  was  Elias,  a  little  reflection  will 
show  how  the  historical  representation  in  Isa.  liii.  is 
of  some  suffering  prophet  or  remnant,  yet  the  truth 
and  patience,  the  grief  and  triumph,  have  their 
highest  fulfilment  in  him  who  said,  "  Father,  not  my 
will,  but  thine."  But  we  must  not  distort  the  proph- 
ets to  prove  the  Divine  Word  incarnate,  and  then, 
from  the  incarnation,  reason  back  to  the  sense  of 
prophecy. 

Loudly  as  justice  and  humanity  exclaim  against 
such  traditional  distortion  of  prophecy  as  makes  their 
own  sacred  writings  a  ground  of  cruel  prejudice 
against  the  Hebrew  people,  and  the  fidelity  of  this 
remarkable  race  to  the  oracles  of  their  fathers  a 
handle  for  social  obloquy,  the  cause  of  Christianity 
itself  would  be  the  greatest  gainer,  if  we  laid  aside 
weapons,  the  use  of  which  brings  shame.  Israel 
would  be  acknowledged  as  in  some  sense  still  a 
Messiah,  having  borne  centuries  of  reproach  through 
the  sin  of  the  nations  ;  but  the  Saviour  who  fulfilled 
in  his  own  person  the  highest  aspiration  of  Hebrew 

*  Die  Propheten  d.  A.  B.,  2ter  Band,  pp.  438-453. 


84  BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  EESEARCHES. 

seers  and  of  mankind,  thereby  lifting  the  ancient 
words,  so  to  speak,  into  a  new  and  higher  power, 
would  be  recognized  as  having  eminently  the  unction 
of  a  prophet  whose  words  die  not,  of  a  priest  in  a 
temple  not  made  with  hands,  and  of  a  king  in  the 
'realm  of  thought,  delivering  his  people  from  a  bond- 
age of  moral  evil  worse  than  Egypt  or  Babylon.  If 
already  the  vast  majority  of  the  prophecies  are  ac- 
knowledged by  our  best  authorities  to  require  some 
such  rendering  in  order  to  Christianize  them,  and  if 
this  acknowledgment  has  become  uniformly  stronger 
in  proportion  as  learning  was  unfettered,  the  force  of 
analogy  leads  us  to  anticipate  that  our  Isaiah,  too, 
must  require  a  similar  interpretation.  No  new  prin- 
ciple is  thrust  upon  the  Christian  world  by  our  his- 
torical understanding  of  this  famous  chapter  ;  but  a 
case  which  had  been  thought  exceptional  is  shown  to 
harmonize  with  a  general  principle. 

Whether  the  great  prophet,  whose  triumphant 
thanksgiving  on  the  return  from  Babylon  forms  the 
later  chapters  of  our  Isaiah,  is  to  remain  without  a 
name,  or  whether  Baron  Bunsen  has  succeeded  in 
identifying  him  with  Baruch,  the  disciple,  scribe,  and 
perhaps  biographer  or  editor  of  Jeremiah,  is  a  ques- 
tion of  probability.  Most  readers  of  the  argument  for 
the  identity  will  feel  inclined  to  assent :  but  a  doubt 
may  occur,  whether  many  an  unnamed  disciple  of  the 
prophetic  school  may  not  have  burnt  with  kindred 
zeal,  and  used  diction  not  peculiar  to  any  one  ;  while 
such  a  doubt  may  be  strengthened  by  the  confidence 
with  which  our  critic  ascribes  a  recasting  of  Job,  and 
of  parts  of  other  books,  to  the  same  favorite  Baruch. 
Yet,  if  kept  within  the  region  of  critical  conjecture, 
his  reasons  are  something  more  than  ingenious.     It 


\ 


BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  EESEARCHES.  85 

may  weigh  with  some  Anghcans,  that  a  letter  as- 
cribed to  St.  Athanasius  mentions  Baruch  among  the 
canonical  prophets.*  ^    ^ 

In  distinguishing  the  man  Daniel  from  our  Book  of  ! 
Daniel,  and  in  bringing  the  latter  as  low  as  the  reign  : 
of  Epiphanes,  our  author  only  follows  the  admitted 
necessities  of  the  case.f     Not  only  Macedonian  words, 
such  as  sijmphoniaX  and  psanterion,  but  the  texture  of 
the  Chaldaic,  with  such  late  forms  as  p'3^  p.  and  ]hH     \, 
the  pronominal  d  and  n  having  passed  into  \,  and  not     \ 
only  minute  description  of  Antiochus's  reign,  but  the     | 
stoppage  of  such,  description  at  the  precise  date  169     { 
B.  C,  remove  all  philological   and   critical   doubt  as 
to  the  age  of  the  book.     But  what  seems  peculiar  to 
Baron  Bunsen,  is  the  interpretation  of  the  four  em- 
pires' symbols  with  reference  to  the  original  Daniel's 
abode  in  Nineveh  :  so  that  the  winged  lion  tradition- 
ally meant  the  Assyrian  Empire  ;   the  bear  was  the 
Babylonian  symbol ;    the  leopard,  that  of  the  Medes 
and  Persians  ;  while  the  fourth  beast  represented,  as 
is  not  uncommonly  held,  the  sway  of  Alexander.     A 
like  reference  is  traced  in  the  mention  of  Hiddekel, 
or  the  Tigris,  in  chap,  x.;  for,  if  the  scene  had  been 
Babylon  under  Darius,  the  river  must  have  been  the 
Euphrates.     The  truth  seems,  that,  starting  like  many 
a  patriot  bard  of  our  own  from  a  name  traditionally 
sacred,  the  writer  used  it,  with  no  deceptive  intention, 
as  a  dramatic  form  which  dignified  his  encouragement 


*  'ifpe/xta?,  Koi  crvv  avrw  Bapov;^,  Gp^i/ot,  'ETTicrroX^  Kol  fier  avrov 
'If^f Kti7X,  K.  T.  X.  —  J^P-  F<^st. 

t  Auberlen,  indeed,  defends  ;  bvit  says,  "Die  Uniichtheit  Daniels  istin 
der  modernen  Theologie  zum  Axioni  geworden." — Der  Prophet  Daniel. 
Basel,   1854. 

%  Compare  "  Philosophy  of  Universal  History,"  (part  of  the  "  Hip- 
polytus")  vol.  i.  pp.  217 -19,  with  "  Gott  in  der  Geschichte,  Istr.  Theil 
pp.  514-40. 


Ob  BUNSEX'S  BIBLICAL  RESEARCHES. 

of  his  countrymen  in  their  great  struggle  against 
Antiochus.  The  original  place  of  the  book*  amongst 
the  later  Hagiographa  of  the  Jewish  canon,  and  the 
absence  of  any  mention  of  it  by  the  son  of  Sirach, 
strikingly  confirm  this  view  of  its  origin  ;  and,  if  some 
obscurity  rests  upon  details,  the  general  conclusion, 
that  the  book  contains  no  predictions  except  by  anal- 
ogy and  type,  can  hardly  be  gainsaid.  But  it  may  not 
the  less,  with  some  of  the  latest  Psalms,  have  nerved 
the  men  of  Israel,  when  they  turned  to  flight  the  ar- 
mies of  the  aliens;  and  it  suggests,  in  the  godless 
invader,  no  slight  forecast  of  Caligula  again  invading 
the  Temple  with  like  abomination,  as  well  as  of  what- 
ever exalts  itself  against  faith  and  conscience,  to  the 
end  of  the  world.  It  is  time  for  divuies  to  recognize 
these  things ;  since,  with  their  opportunities  of  study, 
the  current  error  is  as  discreditable  to  them,  as  for 
the  well-meaning  crowd,  who  are  taught  to  identify  it 
with  their  creed,  it  is  a  matter  of  grave  compassion. 

It  provokes  a  smile  on  serious  topics  to  observe  the 
zeal  with  which  our  critic  vindi*cates  the  personality 
of  Jonah,  and  the  originality  of  his  hymn  (the  latter 
being  generally  thought  doubtful),  while  he  proceeds 
to  explain  that  the  narrative  of  our  book,  in  which  the 
hymn  is  embedded,  contains  a  late  legend,f  founded 
on  misconception.  One  can  imagine  the  cheers,  which 
the  opening  of  such  an  essay  might  evoke  in  some  of 
our  own  circles,  changing  into  indignation  as  the  dis- 
tinguished foreigner  developed  his  views.  After  this, 
he  might  speak  more  gently  of  mythical  theories. 

But  if  such  a  notion  alarms  those  who  think,  that, 

*  The  saying,  tliat  later  Jews  changed  the  place  of  the  book  in  the 
canon,  seems  to  rest  on  no  evidence. 

t  The  present  writer  feels  excused  from  repeating  here  the  explanation 
given  in  the  Appendix  to  his  Sermon  on  Christian  Freedom.    London,  1858. 


BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  EESEARCHES.  87 

apart  from  omniscience  belonging  to  the  Jews,  the 
proper  conclusion  of  reason  is  atheism,  it  is  not  in- 
consistent with  the  idea,  that  Almighty  God  has  been 
pleased  to  educate  men  and  nations,  employing  imag- 
ination no  less  than  conscience,  and  suffering  his  les- 
sons to  play  freely  within  the  limits  of  humanity  and 
its  shortcomings.  Nor  will  any  fair  reader  rise  from 
the  prophetical  disquisitions  without  feeUng  that  he 
has  been  under  the  guidance  of  a  master's  hand.  The 
great  result  is  to  vindicate  the  work  of  the  Eternal 
Spirit,  —  that  abiding  influence,  which,  as  our  Church 
teaches  us  in  the  Ordination  Service,  underlies  all 
others,  and  in  which  converge  all  images  of  old  time, 
and  means  of  grace  now ;  temple,  Scripture,  finger 
and  hand  of  God  ;  and  again,  preaching,  sacraments, 
waters  which  comfort,  and  flame  which  burns.  If 
such  a  Spirit  did  not  dwell  in  the  Church,  the  Bible 
would  not  be  inspired  ;  for  the  Bible  is,  before  all 
things,  th-e  written  voice  of  the  congregation.  Bold 
as  such  a  theory  of  inspiration  may  sound,  it  was  the 
earliest  creed  of  the  Church,  and  it  is  the  only  one  to 
which  the  facts  of  Scripture  answer.  The  sacred 
writers  acknowledge  themselves  men  of  like  passions 
with  ourselves,  and  we  are  promised  illumination  from 
the  Spirit  which  dwelt  in  them.  Hence,  when  we  find 
our  Prayer-book  constructed  on  the  idea  of  the  Church 
being  an  inspired  society  instead  of  objecting  that 
every  one  of  us  is  fallible,  we  should  define  inspiration 
consistently  with  the  facts  of  Scripture  and  of  human 
nature.  These  would  neither  exclude  the  idea  of 
fallibility  among  Israelites  of  old,  nor  teach  us  to 
quench  the  Spirit  in  true  hearts  forever.  But  if  any 
one  prefers  thinking  the  sacred  writers  passionless 
machines,  and  calling  Luther  and  Milton  "  uninspired," 


88  BUXSEN'S   BIBLICAL  RESEARCHES. 

lot  him  co-operate  in  rescarclies  by  which  his  theory, 
if  true,  will  be  triumphantly  confirmed.  Let  him  join 
in  considering  it  a  religious  duty  to  print  the  most 
genuine  text  of  those  words  which  he  calls  divhie  ; 
let  liim  yield  no  grudging  assent  to  the  removal  of 
demonstrated  interpolations  in  our  text,  or  errors  in 
our  translation ;  let  him  give  English  equivalents  for 
its  Latinisms,  once  natural,  but  now  become  deceptive  ; 
let  him  next  trace  fairly  the  growth  of  our  complex 
doctrines  out  of  scriptural  germs,  whether  of  simple 
thought  or  of  Hebrew  idiom :  then,  if  he  be  not  pre- 
pared to  trust  our  Church  with  a  larger  freedom  in 
incorporating  into  her  language  the  results  of  such 
inquiry  and  adapting  one-sided  forms  to  wider  experi- 
ence, he  will  at  least  have  acquired  such  a  knowledge 
of  this  field  of  thought  as  may  induce  him  to  treat 
laborers  in  it  with  respect.  A  recurrence  to  first 
principles,  even  of  revelation,  may,  to  minds  prudent 
or  timid,  seem  a  process  of  more  danger  than  advan- 
tage ;  and  it  is  possible  to  defend  our  traditional  the- 
ology, if  stated  reasonably,  and  with  allowance  for  the 
accidents  of  its  growth.  But  what  is  not  possible, 
with  honesty,  is  to  uphold  a  fabric  of  mingled  faith 
and  speculation,  and  in  the  same  breath  to  violate  the 
instinct  which  believed,  and  blindfold  the  mind  which 
reasoned.  It  would  be  strange  if  God's  work  were 
preserved  by  disparaging  the  instruments  which  his 
wisdom  chose  for  it. 

On  turning  to  the  "  Hippolytus,"  *  we  find  a  congeries 
of  subjects,  but  yet  a  whole,  pregnant  and  suggestive 


*  Hippolytus  and  his  A^e,  by  Chr.  C.  J.  Bunsen,  «Scc.  London,  1852, 
second  edition;  recast,  London,  1854.  The  awakening  freshness  of  the  first 
edition  is  hardly  replaced  by  the  fulness  of  the  second.  It  is  to  be  wished 
that  the  biblical  portions  of  the  Philosophy  of  Universal  History,  voh  ii. 
p])   149-338,  were  reprinted  in  a  cheap  form. 


BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  EESEAECHES.  89 

beyond  any  book  of  our  time.  To  lay  deep  the  foun- 
dations of  faith  in  the  necessities  of  the  human  mind, 
and  to  establish  its  confirmation  by  history,  distin- 
guishing the  local  from  the  universal,  and  translating 
the  idioms  of  priesthoods  or  races  into  the  broad 
speech  of  humanity,  are  amongst  parts  of  the  great 
argument.  Of  those  wonderful  aphorisms  which  are 
further  developed  in  the  second  volume  of  "  Gott  in 
der  Geschichte,"  suffice  it  here,  that  their  author 
stands  at  the  farthest  pole  from  those  who  find  no 
di\T[ne  footsteps  in  the  Gentile  world.  He  believes  in 
Christ,  because  he  first  believes  in  God  and  in  man- 
kind. In  this  he  harmonizes  with  the  Church  Fathers 
before  Augustine,  and  with  all  our  deepest  Evangeli- 
cal school.  In  handling  the  New  Testament,  he  re- 
mains faitliful  to  his  habit  of  exalting  spiritual  ideas, 
and  the  leading  characters  by  whose  personal  impulse 
they  have  been  stamped  on  the  world.  Other  founda- 
tion for  healthful  mind  or  durable  society  he  suffers 
no  man  to  lay,  save  that  of  Jesus,  the  Christ  of  God. 
In  him  he  finds  brought  to  perfection  that  religious 
idea,  which  is  the  thought  of  the  Eternal ;  without 
conformity  to  which,  our  souls  cannot  be  saved  from 
evil.  He  selects  for  emphasis  such  sayings  as,  ^'I 
came  to  cast  fire  upon  the  earth ;  and  how  I  would 
it  were  already  kindled !  I  have  a  baptism  to  be 
baptized  with  ;  and  how  am  I  straitened  until  it  be 
accomplished  ! "  In  these  he  finds  the  innermost 
mind  of  the  Son  of  man,  undimmed  by  the  haze  of 
minoled  imao:ination  and  remembrance  with  which 
his  awful  figure  should  scarcely  fail  to  be  at  length 
invested  by  affection.  The  glimpses  thus  afibrded  us 
into  the  depth  of  our  Lord's  purpose,  and  his  law  of 
giving  rather    than   receiving,   explain  the   wonder- 


90  BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  EESE ARCHES. 

working  power  with  which  he  wielded  the  truest 
hearts  of  his  generation,  and  correspond  to  his  life 
and  death  of  self-sacrifice. 

This  recognition  of  Christ,  as  the  moral  Saviour  of 
mankind,  may  seem,  to  some,  Baron  Bunsen's  most 
obvious  claim  to  the  name  of  "  Christian  ;  "  for,  though 
he  embraces  with  more  than  orthodox  warmth  New 
Testament  terms,  he  explains  them  in  sucli  a  way,  that 
he  may  be  charged  with  using  evangelical  language  in 
a  philosophical  sense.  But,  in  reply,  he  would  ask, 
What  proof  is  there  that  the  reasonable  sense  of 
St.  Paul's  words  was  not  the  one  which  the  Apostle 
intended  ?  Why  may  not  justification  by  faith  have 
meant  the  peace  of  mind,  or  sense  of  Divine  approval, 
which  comes  of  trust  in  a  righteous  God,  rather  than 
a  fiction  of  merit  by  transfer  ?  St.  Paul  would  then 
be  teaching  moral  responsibility,  as  opposed  to  sacer- 
dotalism; or  that  to  obey  is  better  than  sacrifice. 
Eaith  would  be  opposed,  not  to  the  good  deeds  which 
conscience  requires,  but  to  works  of  appeasement  by 
ritual.  Justification  would  be  neither  an  arbitrary 
ground  of  confidence,  nor  a  reward  upon  condition  of 
our  disclaiming  merit,  but  rather  a  verdict  of  forgive- 
ness upon  our  repentance,  and  of  acceptance  upon  the 
offering  of  our  hearts.  It  is  not  a  fatal  objection  to 
say  that  St.  Paul  would  thus  teach  natural  religion, 
unless  we  were  sure  that  he  was  bound  to  contradict 
it ;  but  it  is  a  confirmation  of  the  view,  if  it  brings 
his  hard  sayings  into  harmony  with  the  Gospels  and 
with  the  Psalms,  as  well  as  with  the  mstincts  of  our 
best  conscience.  If  we  had  dreamed  of  our  nearest 
kindred  in  irreconcilable  combat,  and  felt  anguish  at 
the  thought  of  opposing  either,  it  could  be  no  greater 
relief  to  awake,  and  find  them  at  concord,  than  it 


BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  EESEAECHES.  91 

would  be  to  some  minds  to  find  the  antagonism  be- 
tween nature  and  revelation  vanishing*  in  a  wider 
grasp  and  deeper  perception  of  the  one,  or  in  a  better 
balanced  statement  of  the  other. 

If  our  philosopher  had  persuaded  us  of  the  moral 
nature  of  justification,  he  would  not  shrink  from 
adding  that  regeneration  is  a  correspondent  giving  of 
insight,  or  an  awakening  of  forces  of  the  soul.  By- 
resurrection  he  would  mean  a  spiritual  quickening. 
Salvation  would  be  our  deliverence,  not  from  the  life- 
giving  God,  but  from  evil  and  darkness,  which  are  his 
finite  opposites  (o  ai'Tt/ce/z-tei/o?) .  Propitiation  would  be 
the  recovery  of  that  peace,  which  cannot  be  while  sin 
divides  us  from  the  Searcher  of  hearts.  The  eternal 
is  what  belongs  to  God,  as  spirit ;  therefore  the  nega- 
tion of  things  finite  and  unspiritual,  whether  world 
or  letter,  or  rite  of  blood.  The  hateful  fires  of  the 
Yale  of  Hinnom  (Gehenna)  are  hardly  in  the  strict 
letter  imitated  by  the  God  who  has  pronounced  them 
cursed,  but  may  serve  as  images  of  distracted  remorse. 
Heaven  is  not  a  place,  so  much  as  fulfilment  of  the 
love  of  God.  The  kingdom  of  God  is  no  more  Romish 
sacerdotalism  than  Jewish  royalty,  but  the  realization 
of  the  Divine  Will  in  our  thoughts  and  lives.  This 
expression  of  spirit,  in  deed  and  form,  is  generically 
akin  to  creation,  and  illustrates  the  incarnation  ;  for, 
though  the  true  substance  of  Deity  took  body  in  the 
Son  of  man,  they  who  know  the  Divine  Substance  to 
be  Spirit  will  conceive  of  such  embodiment  of  the 
Eternal  Mind  very  differently  from  those  who  abstract 
all  divine  attributes,  —  such   as   consciousness,   fore- 


*  "  The  doctrine  of  the  Fall,  the  doctrine  of  Grace,  and  the  doctrine  of 
the  Atonement,  are  grounded  in  the  insiincis  of  laankind.^''  —  Mozley  on  Pre^ 
destination^  chap.  xi.  p.  33l. 


92  BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  EESE ARCHES. 

thought,  and  love,  —  and  then  imagine  a  material  resi- 
duum, on  which  they  confer  the  holiest  name.  The 
Divine  Attributes  are  *  consubstantial  with  the  Divine 
Essence.  He  who  abides  in  love,  abides  in  God,  and 
/  God  in  him.  Thus  the  incarnation  becomes  with  our 
author  as  purely  spiritual  as  it  was  with  St.  Paul. 
The  son  of  David  by  birth  is  the  Son  of  God  by  the 
spirit  of  holiness.  What  is  flesh  is  born  of  flesh,  and 
what  is  spirit  is  born  of  spirit. f 

If  we  would  estimate  the  truth  of  such  views,  the 
full  import  of  which  hardly  lies  on  the  surface,  we 
find  two  lines  of  inquiry  present  themselves  as  crite- 
ria ;  and  each  of  these  divides  itself  into  two  branches. 
First,  as  regards  the  subject-matter,  both  spiritual 
affection  and  metaphysical  reasoning  forbid  us  to  con- 
fine revelations  like  those  of  Christ  to  the  first  half- 
century  of  our  era;  but  show,  at  least,  affinities  of 
our  faith  existing  in  men's  minds  anterior  to  Chris- 
tianity, and  renewed  with  deep  echo  from  living 
hearts  in  many  a  generation.  Again  :  on  the  side  of 
external  criticism,  we  find  the  evidences  of  our  ca- 
nonical books,  and  of  the  patristic  authors  nearest  to 
them,  are  sufficient  to  prove  illustration  in  outward 
act  of  principles  perpetually  true,  but  not  adequate  to 
guarantee  narratives  inherently  incredible  or  precepts 
evidently  wrong.  Hence  we  are  obliged  to  assume 
in  ourselves  a  verifying  faculty,  not  unlike  the  dis- 
cretion which  a  mathematician  would  use  in  weighing 
a  treatise  on  geometry,  or  the  liberty  which  a  musi- 
cian would  reserve  in  reporting  a  law  of  harmony. 


=*  On  this  point,  the  summary  of  St,  Augustine  at  the  end  of  his  fifteenth 
book,  "  On  the  Trinity,"  is  worth  reading. 

t  "  Neque  sermo  aliud  quam  Deus,  neque  caro  aliud  quamhomo;  "  and 
*'  Ex  carne  homo,  ex  spiritu  Deus."  —  Tertullian  adv.  Prax.  c.  xxvii.  Com- 
pare Eom.  i.  1-3. 


BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  EESEAECHES.  93 

Thus,  as  we  are  expressly  told,  we  are  to  have  the 
witness  in  ourselves.  It  is  not  our  part  to  dictate 
to  Almighty  God,  that  he  ought  to  have  spared  us 
this  strain  upon  our  consciences  ;  nor,  in  giving  us 
through  his  Son  a  deeper  revelation  of  his  own  pres- 
ence, was  he  bound  to  accompany  his  gift  by  a  spe- 
cial form  of  record.*  Hence  there  is  no  antecedent 
necessity  that  the  least  rational  view  of  the  gospel 
should  be  the  truest,  or  that  our  faith  should  have  no 
human  element,  and  its  records  be  exempt  from  his- 
torical law.  Rather  we  may  argue,  the  more  divine 
the  germ,  the  more  human  must  be  the  develop- 
ment. 

Our  author,  then,  believes  St.  Paul,  because  he 
understands  him  reasonably.  Nor  does  his  accept- 
ance of  Christ's  redemption  from  evil  bind  him  to 
repeat  traditional  fictions  about  our  canon,  or  to  read 
its  pages  with  that  dulness  which  turns  symbol  and 
poetry  into  materialism.  On  the  side  of  history  lies 
the  strength  of  his  genius.  His  treatment  of  the 
New  Testament  is  not  very  unlike  the  acute  criticism 
of  De  Wette,  tempered  by  the  affectionateness  of  Ne- 
ander.  He  finds  in  the  first  three  Gospels  divergent 
forms  of  the  tradition,  once  oral,  and  perhaps  cate- 
chetical, in  the  congregations  of  the  apostles.  He 
thus  explains  the  numerous  traces  characteristic  of  a 
traditional  narrative.  He  does  not  ascribe  the  quad- 
ruple division  of  record  to  the  four  churches  of 
Jerusalem,  Eome,  Antioch,  and  Alexandria,  on  the 
same  principle  as  liturgical  families  are  traced  ;  but 
he  requires  time  enough  for  some  development,  and 
for  the  passing  of  some  symbol  into  story.    By  making 


*  Butler's  Analogy,  part  ii.  chap.  iii.    Hooker,  Eccl.  Pol.,  books  i.  ii. 


94  BUNSEN'S   BIBLICAL  RESEARCHES. 

the  fourth  Gospel  the  latest  of  all  our  genuine  books, 
he  accounts  for  its  style  (so  mucli  more  Greek  than 
the  A^oocalypse),  and  explains  many  passages.  The 
verse,  "  And  no  man  hath  ascended  up  into  heaven  but 
he  that  came  down,"*  is  intelligible  as  a  free  com- 
ment near  the  end  of  the  first  century,  but  has  no 
meaning  in  our  Lord's  mouth  at  a  time  when  the  as- 
cension had  not  been  heard  of.  So  the  Apocalypse,  if 
taken  as  a  series  of  poetical  visions  which  represent 
the  outpouring  of  the  vials  of  wrath  upon  the  city 
where  the  Lord  was  slain,  ceases  to  be  a  riddle.  Its 
horizon  answers  to  that  of  Jerusalem,  already  threat- 
ened by  the  legions  of  Vespasian  ;  and  its  language  is 
partly  adapted  from  the  older  prophets,  partly  a  repe- 
tition of  our  Lord's  warnings  as  described  by  the 
evangelists,  or  as  deepened  into  wilder  threatenings 
in  the  mouth  of  the  later  Jesus,f  the  son  of  Ananus. 
The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  so  different  in  its  con- 
ception of  faith  and  in  its  Alexandrine  rhytlim  from 
the  doctrine  and  the  language  of  St.  Paul's  known 
Epistles,  has  its  degree  of  discrepance  explained  by 
ascribing  it  to  some  J  companion  of  the  apostle's  ;  and 
minute  reasons  are  found  for  fixing  with  probability 
on  Apollos.  The  second  of  the  Petrine  Epistles,  hav- 
ing alike  external  and  internal  evidence  against  its 
genuineness,  is  necessarily  surrendered  as  a  whole ; 
and  our  critic's  good  faith,  in  this  respect,  is  more 
certain  than  the  ingenuity  with  which  he  reconstructs 
a  part  of  it.  The  second  chapter  may  not  improbably 
be  a  quotation ;  but  its  quoter,  and  the  author  of  the 
rest  of  the  Epistle,  need  not,  therefore,  have   been 

*  John  iii.  13.  t  Jopephus,  B.  J.,  b.  vi.  c.  v.  §  3. 

J  111  my  own  judgment,  the  Epistle  bears  traces  of  bemg /?os<-apostolic : 
iii.  14 ;  xiii.  7 ;  ii".  3 ;  x.  2,  25  -  32. 


BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  EESEAECHES.  95 

St.  Peter.  Where  so  many  points  are  handled,  fanci- 
fuhiess  m  some  may  be  pardoned ;  and  indulgence  is 
needed  for  the  eagerness  with  which  St.  Paul  is  made 
a  widower,  because  some  Fathers  *  misunderstood 
the  texts,  "  true  yoke-fellow,"  and  "  leading  about  a 
sister." 

After  a  survey  of  the  canon,  the  working,  as  of 
leaven  in  meal,  of  that  awakening  of  mankind  which 
took  its  impulse  from  the  life  of  Christ,  is  traced 
through  the  first  seven  generations  of  Christendom. 
After  Origen,  the  first  freedom  of  the  gospel  grows 
faint,  or  is  hardened  into  a  system  more  ecclesiastical 
in  form  and  more  dialectical  in  speculation  ;  the  fresh 
language  of  feeling  or  symbol  being  transferred  to 
the  domain  of  logic,  like  Homer  turned  into  prose  by 
a  scholiast.  It  need  not,  to  a  jDhilosoj^hical  observer, 
necessarily  follow,  that  the  change  was  altogether  a 
corruption ;  for  it  may  have  been  the  providential 
condition  of  religious  feelhig  brought  into  contact 
with  intellect,  and  of  the  heavenly  kingdom's  expan- 
sion in  the  world.  The  elasticity  with  which  Christi- 
anity gathers  into  itself  the  elements  of  natural  piety, 
and  assimilates  the  relics  of  Gentile  form  and  usage, 
can  only  be  a  ground  of  objection  with  those  who  have 
reflected  little  on  the  nature  of  revelation ;  but  Baron 
Bunsen,  as  a  countryman  of  Luther,  and  a  follower  of 
those  "  Friends  of  God "  whose  profound  mysticism 
appears  in  the  "  Theologia  Germanica,"  takes  decided 
part  with  the  first  freshness  of  Christian  freedom, 
against  the  confused  thought  and  furious  passions 
which  disfigure  most  of  the  great  councils.  Those 
who  imagine  that  the  laws  of  criticism  are  arbitrary 

*  Clement  aud  Origen,  amongst  others. 


96  BUNSEN'S   BIBLICAL  EESEAECHES. 

(or,  as  they  say,  subjective)  may  learn  a  different 
lesson  from  the  array  of  passages,  the  balance  of  evi- 
dence, and  the  estimate  of  each  author's  point  of 
view,  with  which  the  picture  of  Christian  antiquity 
is  unrolled  in  the  pages  of  the  "  Hippolytus."  Every 
triumph  of  our  faith,  in  purifying  life  or  in  softening 
and  enlightening  barbarism,  is  there  expressed  in  the 
lively  records  of  liturgies  and  canons  ;  and  again  the 
shadows  of  night  approach,  with  monkish  fanaticism 
and  imperial  tyranny,  amidst  intrigues  of  bishops  who 
play  the  parts,  alternately,  of  courtier  and  of  dema- 
gogue. 

The  picture  was  too  truly  painted  for  that  ecclesias- 
tical school  which  appeals  loudest  to  antiquity,  and  has 
most  reason  to  dread  it.  While  they  imagine  a  system 
of  divine  immutability,  or  one  in  which,  at  worst,  holy 
Fathers  unfolded  reverently  apostolic  oracles,  the  true 
history  of  the  Church  exhibits  the  turbulent  growth 
of  youth  ;  a  democracy,  with  all  its  passions,  trans- 
forming itself  into  sacerdotalism,  and  a  poetry,  with 
its  figures,  partly  represented  by  doctrine,  and  partly 
perverted.  Even  the  text  of  Scripture  fluctuated  in 
sympathy  with  the  changes  of  the  Church,  especially 
in  passages  bearing  on  asceticism  and  the  fuller  devel- 
opment of  the  Trinity.  The  first  Christians  held  that 
the  heart  was  purified  by  faith :  the  accompanying 
symbol,  water,  became  by  degrees  the  instrument  of 
purification.  Holy  baptism  was  at  first  preceded  by 
a  vow,  in  which  the  young  soldier  expressed  his  con- 
sciousness of  spiritual  truth :  but,  when  it  became 
twisted  into  a  false  analogy  with  circumcision,  the 
rite  degenerated  into  a  magical  form  ;  and  the  Augus- 
tinian  notion,  of  a  curse  inherited  by  infants,  was 
developed  in  connection  with  it.     Sacrifice,  with  the 


BUNSEN'S   BIBLICAL  KESE ARCHES.  97 

Psalmist,  meant,  not  the  goat's  or  heifer's  blood-shed- 
ding, but  the  contrite  heart  expressed  by  it.  So,  with 
St.  Paul,  it  meant  the  presenting  of  our  souls  and 
bodies,  as  an  oblation  of  the  reason,  or  worship  of  the 
mind.  The  ancient  liturgies  contain  prayers  that  God 
would  make  our  sacrifices  "  rational ;  "  that  is,  spirit- 
ual. Religion  was  thus  moralized  by  a  sense  of  the 
righteousness  of  God,  and  morality  transfigured  into 
religion  by  a  sense  of  his  holiness.  Yestiges  of  this 
earliest  creed  yet  remain  in  our  communion-service. 
As  in  life,  so  in  sacrament,  the  first  Christians  offered 
themselves  in  the  spirit  of  Christ ;  therefore,  in  his 
name.  But  when  the  priest  took  the  place  of  the  con- 
gregation ;  when  the  sacramental  signs  were  treated 
as  the  natural  body,  and  the  bodily  sufferings  of  Christ 
enhanced  above  the  self-sacrifice  of  his  will,  even  to 
the  death  of  the  cross,  —  the  centre  of  Christian  faith 
became  inverted,  though  its  form  remained.  Men  for- 
got that  the  writer  to  the  Hebrews  exalts  the  blood  of 
an  everlasting  —  that  is,  of  a  spiritual  —  covenant ; 
for  what  is  fleshly  vanishes  away.  The  angels  who 
hover  with  vials,  catching  the  drops  from  the  cross, 
are  pardonable  in  art,  but  make  a  step  in  theology  to- 
wards transubstantiation.  Salvation  from  evil  through 
sharing  the  Saviour's  spirit  was  shifted  into  a  notion 
of  purchase  from  God  through  the  price  of  his  bodily 
pangs.  The  deep  drama  of  heart  and  mind  became 
externalized  into  a  commercial  transfer,  and  this  ef- 
fected by  a  form  of  ritual.  So,  with  the  more  specu- 
lative Fathers,  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  was  a  pro- 
found metaphysical  problem,  wedded  to  what  seemed 
consequences  of  the  incarnation  ;  but,  in  ruder  hands, 
it  became  a  materialism  almost  idolatrous,  or  an  arith- 


98  BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  EESEARCHES. 

metical  enigma.*  Even  now,  different  accepters  of 
the  same  doctrinal  terms  hold  many  shades  of  concep- 
tion between  a  philosophical  view  which  recommends 
itself  as  easiest  to  believe,  and  one  felt  to  be  so  irra- 
tional that  it  calls  in  the  aid  of  terror.  ''  Quasi  non 
imitas,  hrationaliter  collecta,  haeresin  faciat ;  et  Trini- 
tas  ratlonaliter  expensa,  veritatem  constituat,"  said 
TertuUian.t 

The  historian  of  such  variations  was  not  likely,  with 
those  whose  theology  consists  of  invidious  terms,  to 
escape  the  nickname  of  Pelagian  or  Sabellian.  He 
evidently  could  not  state  original  sin  in  so  exagger- 
ated a  form  as  to  make  the  design  of  God  altered  by 
the  first  agents  in  his  creation,  or  to  destroy  the  no- 
tion of  moral  choice  and  the  foundation  of  ethics  ; 
nor  could  his  Trinity  destroy  by  inference  that  divine 
Unity  which  all  acknowledge  in  terms.  The  fall  of 
Adam  represents  with  him  ideally  the  circumscription 
of  our  spirits  in  limits  of  flesh  and  time,  and  practi- 
cally the  selfish  nature  with  which  we  fall  from  the 
likeness  of  God,  which  should  be  fulfilled  in  man.  So 
his  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  ingenuously  avoids  building 
on  texts  which  our  Unitarian  critics,  from  Sir  Isaac 
Newton  to  Gilbert  Wakefield,  have  impugned  ;  but  is 
a  philosophical  rendering  of  the  first  chapter  of  St. 
John's  Gospel.  The  profoundest  analysis  of  our  world 
leaves  the  law  of  thought  as  its  ultimate  basis  and 
bond  of  coherence.  This  thought  is  consubstantial 
with  the  being  of  the  Eternal  I  AM.  Being,  becoming, 
and  animating,  or  substance,  thinking,  and  conscious 


*  See  this  shown,  with  just  rebnke  of  some  Oxford  sophistries,  in  the 
learned  Bishop  Kayc's  "  Council  of  Nicasa,"  London,  1S53;  a  book  of  admi- 
rable moderation,  though  hardly  of  speculative  power.  See  pp.  163, 168, 194, 
199,  219,  226,  251,  252. 

t  Adv.  Prax.  c.  iii. 


BTJNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  RESEARCHES.  99 

life,  are  expressions  of  a  Triad,  which  may  be  also 
represented  as  will,*  wisdom,  and  love  ;  as  light,  radi- 
ance, and  warmth  ;  as  fountain,  stream,  and  united 
flow  ;  as  mind,  thought,  and  consciousness  ;  as  person, 
word,  and  life  ;  as  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit.  In  virtue 
of  such  identity  of  Thought  with  Being,  the  primitive 
Trinity  represented  neither  three  originant  principles  \ 
nor  three  transient  phases,  but  three  eternal  inheren-  * 
cies  in  one  Divine  mind.  "  The  unity  of  God,  as  the  ^ 
Eternal  Father,  is  the  fundamental  doctrine  of  Chris- 
tianity:"! but  the  Divine  Consciousness  or  Wisdom, 
consubstantial  with  the  Eternal  Will,  becoming  per- 
sonal in  the  Son  of  man,  is  the  express  image  of  the 
Father ;  and  Jesus  actually,  but  also  mankind  ideally, 
is  the  Son  of  God.  If  all  this  has  a  Sabellian  or  al- 
most a  Brahmanical  sound,  its  impugners  are  bound, 
even  on  patristic  grounds,  to  show  how  it  differs  from 
the  doctrine  of  Justin  Martyr,  Tertullian,  Hippolytus, 
Origen,  and  the  historian  Eusebius.  If  the  language 
of  those  very  Fathers  who  wrote  against  different  forms 
of  Sabellianism,  would,  if  now  first  used,  be  condemned 
as  Sabellian,  are  we  to  follow  the  ancient  or  the  mod- 
ern guides  ?  May  not  a  straining  after  orthodoxy, 
with  all  the  confusion  incident  to  metaphysical  terms, 
have  led  the  scholars  beyond  their  masters  ?  We  have 
some  authorities,  who,  if  Athanasius  himself  were 
quoted  anonymously,  would  neither  recognize  the 
author  nor  approve  his  doctrine.  They  would  judge 
him  by  the  creed  bearing  his  name,  the  sentiments  of 
which  are  as  difficult  to   reconcile  with  his  genuine 

*  "  Anima  hominis  natura  sua  in  se  habet  Ss.  Trinitatis  simiilaci-um  ; 
in  se  enim  tria  complectitur,  Mentem,  Intellectum,  et  Voluntatem :  .  .  . 
cogitat, .  .  .  percipit, .  .  .  vult."  —  Bede,  i.  8  ;  copying,  almost  verbally, 
St.  Augustine. 

t  Hippolytus,  vol.  ii.  p.  46,  first  edition. 


100  BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  RESEARCHES. 

works  as  its  Latin  terms  are  with  his  Greek  language. 
Baron  Bimsen  may  admire  that  creed  as  little  as  Jere- 
my Taylor*  and  Tillotson  did,  without  necessarily 
contradicting  the  great  Father  to  whom  it  is  ascribed. 
Still  more  :  as  a  philosopher,  sitting  loose  to  our  Arti- 
cles, he  may  deliberately  assign  to  the  conclusions  of 
councils  a  very  subordinate  value ;  and  taking  his 
stand  on  the  genuine  words  of  Holy  Scripture,  and 
the  immutable  laws  of  God  to  the  human  mind,  he 
may  say,  either  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  agrees  with 
these  tests,  or,  if  you  make  it  disagree,  you  make  it 
false.  If  he  errs  in  his  speculation,  he  gives  us  in  his 
critical  researches  the  surest  means  of  correcting  his 
errors  ;  and  his  polemic  is  at  least  triumphant  against 
those  who  load  the  Church  with  the  conclusions  of 
patristic  thought,  and  forbid  our  thinking  sufficiently 
to  understand  them.  As  the  coolest  heads  at  Trent 
said,  ''  Take  care,  lest  in  condemning  Luther,  you  con- 
demn St.  Augustine  ;"  so,  if  our  defenders  of  the  faith 
would  have  men  believe  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity, 
they  had  better  not  forbid  metaphysics,  or  even  sneer 
at  Realism. 

The  strong  assertions  in  the  "  Hippolytus,"  concern- 
ing the  freedom  of  the  human  will,  may  require  some 
balance  from  the  language  of  penitence  and  of  prayer. 
They  must  be  left  here  to  comparison  with  the  con- 
stant language  of  the  Greek  Church,  with  the  doctrine 
of  the  first  four  centuries,  with  the  schoolmen's  prac- 
tical evasions  of  the  Augustinian  standard  which  they 
professed,  and  with  the  guarded  but  earnest  protests 
and  limitations  of  our  own  ethical  divines,  from  Hooker 
and  Jeremy  Taylor  to  Butler  and  Hampden. 

*  Liberty  of  Prophesyinf^,  pp.  491  -  2,  vol.  vii.  ed.  Heber.     Burnet's  Own 
Times.     Letter  from  Tillotsou  at  the  end. 


BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  EESEARCHES.  101 

On  the  great  hope  of  mankind,  the  immortality  of 
the  soul,  the  "  Hippolytus  "  left  something  to  be  de- 
sired. It  had  a  Brahmanical,  rather  than  a  Christian 
or  Platonic  sound.  But  the  second  volume  of  "  Gott 
in  der  Geschichte  "  seems  to  imply,  that,  if  the  author 
recoils  from  the  fleshly  resurrection  and  Judaic  mil- 
lennium of  Justin  Martyr,  he  still  shares  the  aspira- 
tion of  the  noblest  philosophers  elsewhere,  and  of  the 
firmer  believers  among  ourselves,  to  a  revival  of  con- 
scious and  individual  life,  in  such  a  form  of  immortal- 
ity as  may  consist  with  union  with  the  spirit  of  our 
Eternal  Life-giver.  Remarkable  in  the  same  volume 
is  the  generous  vindication  of  the  first  Buddhist  Sakya 
against  the  misunderstandings  which  fastened  on  him 
a  doctrine  of  atheism  and  of  annihilation.  The  pene- 
trating prescience  of  Neander  seems  borne  out  on  this 
point  by  genuine  texts  against  the  harsher  judgment 
of  recent  Sanscrit  scholars.  He  judged  as  a  philos- 
opher ;  and  they,  as  grammarians. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  say  on  what  subject  Baron 
Bunsen  is  not  at  home ;  but  none  is  handled  by  him 
with  more  familiar  mastery  than  that  of  liturgies, 
ancient  and  modern.  He  has  endeavored  to  enlarge 
the  meagre  stores  of  the  Lutheran  Church  by  a  col- 
lection of  evangelical  songs  and  prayers.*  Eich  in 
primitive  models,  yet  adapted  to  Lutheran  habits,  this 
collection  might  be  suggestive  to  any  Nonconformist 
congregations  which  desire  to  enrich  or  temper  their 
devotions  by  the  aid  of  common  prayers.  Even  our 
own  Church,  though  not  likely  to  recast  her  ritual  in  a 
foreign  mould,  might  observe  with  profit  the  greater 
calmness  and  harmony  of  the  older  forms,  as  compared 

*  Gesang-  und  Gebet-buch.    Hamburg,  1846. 


102  BUNSEN-S  BIBLICAL  RESEAECHES. 

with  the  amplifications  which  she  has  in  some  cases 
adopted.  Our  Litany  is  hardly  equal  to  its  germ  ;  nor 
do  our  collects  exhaust  available  stores.  Yet  if  it  be 
one  great  test  of  a  theology,  that  it  shall  bear  to  be 
prayed,  our  author  has  hardly  satisfied  it.  Either  rev- 
erence or  deference  may  have  prevented  him  from 
bringing  his  prayers  into  entire  harmony  with  his 
criticisms  ;  or  it  may  be  that  a  discrepance,  which  we 
should  constantly  diminish,  is  likely  to  remain  between 
our  feelings  and  our  logical  necessities.  It  is  not  the 
less  certain,  that  some  reconsideration  of  the  polem- 
ical element  in  our  Liturgy,  as  of  the  harder  scholasti- 
cism in  our  theology,  would  be  the  natural  offspring 
of  any  age  of  research  in  which  Christianity  was  free  ; 
and  if  this,  as  seems  but  too  probable,  is  to  be  much 
longer  denied  us,  the  consequence  must  be  a  lessening 
of  moral  strength  within  our  pale,  and  an  accession  to 
influences  which  will  not  always  be  friendly.  But  to 
estrange  our  doctrinal  teaching  from  the  convictions, 
and  our  practical  administration  from  the  influence, 
of  a  Protestant  laity,  are  parts  of  one  policy,  and  that 
not  always  a  blind  one.  Nor  is  doctrinal  narrowness 
of  view  without  practical  counterpart  in  the  rigidity 
which  excludes  the  breath  of  prayer  from  our  churches 
for  six  days  in  seven,  rather  than  permit  a  clergyman 
to  select  such  portions  as  devotion  suggests  and  aver- 
age strength  permits. 

It  did  not  fall  within  the  scope  of  this  essay  to 
define  the  extent  of  its  illustrious  subject's  obliga- 
tions (which  he  would  no  doubt  largely  acknowl- 
edge) to  contemporary  scholars,  such  as  Mr.  Birch 
or  others ;  nor  was  it  necessary  to  touch  questions 
of  ethnology  and  politics  which  might  be  raised  by 
those  who  value  Germanism  so  far  as  it  is  human, 


'      BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL   RESEAECHES.  103 

ratlier  than  so  far  as  it  is  German.  Sclavonians 
might  notice  the  scanty  acknowledgment  of  the  vast 
contributions  of  their  race  to  the  intellectual  wealth 
of  Germany.*  Celtic  scholars  might  remark,  that 
triumph  in  a  discovery  which  has  yet  to  be  proved, 
regarding  the  law  of  initial  mutations  in  their  lan- 
guage, is  premature. t  Nor  would  they  assent  to  our 
author's  ethical  description  of  their  race.  So,  when 
he  asks,  "  How  long  shall  we  bear  this  fiction  of  an 
external  revelation  ?  "  that  is,  of  one  violating  the 
heart  and  conscience,  instead  of  expressing  itself 
through  them  :  or  when  he  says,  "  All  this  is  delusion 
for  those  who  believe  it ;  but  what  is  it  in  the  mouths 
of  those  who  teach  it  ?  "  or  when  he  exclaims,  "  Oh 
the  fools  !  who,  if  they  do  see  the  imminent  perils 
of  this  age,  think  to  ward  them  off  by  narrow-minded 
persecution  !  "  and  when  he  repeats,  "  Is  it  not  time, 
in  truth,  to  withdraw  the  veil  from  our  misery  ;  to 
tear  off  the  mask  from  hypocrisy,  and  destroy  that 
sham  which  is  undermining  all  real  ground  under  our 
feet ;  to  point  out  the  dangers  which  surround,  nay, 
threaten  already  to  ingulf  us  ?  "  —  there  will  be 
some  who  think  his  language  too  vehement  for  good 
taste.  Others  will  think  burning  words  needed  by 
the  disease  of  our  time.  They  will  not  quarrel  on 
points  of  taste  with  a  man  who  in  our  darkest  per- 
plexity has  reared  again  the  banner  of  truth,  and 
uttered  thoughts  which  give  courage  to  the  weak, 
and  sight  to  the  blind.     If  Protestant  Europe  is  to 


*  One  might  ask,  whether  the  experience  of  our  two  latest  wars  encour- 
ages our  looking  to  Germany  for  any  unselfish  sympathy  with  the  rights  of 
nations?  or  has  she  not  rather  earned  the  curse  of  Meroz? 

t  So  the  vaunted  discovery  of  Professor  Zeuss,  deriving  "  Cymry  "  from 
an  imaginary  word,  "  Combroges,"  is  against  the  testimony  of  the  best 
Greek  geographers.  ' 


104  BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  RESEAECHES. 

escape  those  shadows  of  the  twelfth  century,  which, 
with  ominous  recurrence,  are  closing  round  us,  to 
Baron  Bunsen  will  belong  a  foremost  place  among  the 
champions  of  light  and  right.  Any  points  disputable, 
or  partially  erroneous,  which  may  be  discovered  in 
his  many  works,  are  as  dust  in  the  balance,  compared 
with  the  mass  of  solid  learning,  and  the  elevating 
influence  of  a  noble  and  Christian  spirit.  Those  who 
have  assailed  his  doubtful  points  are  equally  opposed 
to  his  strong  ones.  Our  own  testimony  is,  where  we 
have  been  best  able  to  follow  him,  we  have  generally 
found  most  reason  to  agree  with  him ;  but  our  little 
survey  has  not  traversed  his  vast  field,  nor  our  plum- 
met sounded  his  depth. 

Bunsen,  with  voice  like  sound  of  trumpet  born, 

Conscious  of  strength,  and  confidently  bold, 
Well  feign  the  sons  of  Loyola  the  scorn 

Which  from  thy  books  would  scare  their  startled  fold. 
To  thee  our  Earth  disclosed  her  purple  morn, 

And  Time  his  long-lost  centuries  um-olled; 
Far  Realms  unveiled  the  mystery  of  their  tongues, 
Thou  all  their  garlands  on  the  Cross  hast  hung. 

My  lips  but  ill  could  frame  thy  Lutheran  speech, 
Nor  suits  thy  Teuton  vaunt  our  British  pride : 

But,  ah !  not  dead  my  soul  to  giant  reach, 
That  envious  Eld's  vast  interval  defied; 

And  when  those  fables  strange,  our  hirelings  teach, 
I  saw  by  genuine  learning  cast  aside, 

Even  like  Linnaeus  kneeling  on  the  sod, 

For  faith  from  falsehood  severed  thank  I  God. 


NOTE   ON  BUNSEN'S  BIBLICAL  KESEARCHES. 


Since  the  Essay  ou  Bunsen's  "  Biblical  Researches  "  was  In  type, 
two  more  parts  of  the  "  Bible  for  the  People  "  have  reached  Eng- 
land. One  includes  a  translation  of  Isaiah,  but  does  not  separate 
the  distinguishable  portions  in  the  manner  of  Ewald,  or  with  the 
freedom  which  the  translator's  criticisms  would  justify.  The  other 
part  comprehends  numerous  dissertations  on  the  Pentateuch,  enter- 
ing largely  on  questions  of  its  origin,  materials,  and  interpretation. 
There  seems  not  an  entire  consistency  of  detail  in  these  disserta- 
tions, and  in  the  views  deducible  from  the  author's  "  Egypt ; "  but 
the  same  spirit,  and  breadth  of  treatment,  pervade  both.  The 
analysis  of  the  Levitical  laws,  by  which  the  Mosaic  germs  are  dis- 
tinguished from  subsequent  accretions,  is  of  the  highest  interest. 
The  ten  plagues  of  Egypt  are  somewhat  rationalistically  handled, 
as  having  a  true  historical  basis,  but  as  explicable  by  natural  phe- 
nomena, indigenous  to  Egypt  in  all  ages.  The  author's  tone  upon 
the  technical  definition  of  miracles,  as  distinct  from  great  marvels 
and  wonders,  has  acquired  a  firmer  freedom,  and  would  be  repre- 
sented by  some  among  ourselves  as  "painfully  sceptical."  But 
even  those  who  hesitate  to  follow  the  author  in  his  details  must  be 
struck  by  the  brilliant  suggestiveness  of  his  researches,  which  tend 
more  and  more,  in  proportion  as  they  are  developed,  to  justify  the 
presentiment  of  their  creating  a  new  epoch  in  the  science  of  biblical 
criticism.  ^-  ^- 


ON   THE   STUDY   OF   THE   EVIDENCES 
OF   CHRISTIANITY. 


By   BADEN  "pOWELL,   M.A,   F.R.S.,   &c. 


THE  investigation  of  that  important  and  extensive 
subject  which  inchides  what  have  been  usually- 
designated  as  "  The  Evidences  of  Revelation,"  has 
prescriptively  occupied  a  considerable  space  in  the 
field  of  theological  literature,  especially  as  cultivated 
in  England.  There  is  scarcely  one,  perhaps,  of  our 
more  eminent  divines,  who  has  not,  in  a  greater  or 
less  degree,  distinguished  himself  in  this  department ; 
and  scarcely  an  aspirant  for  theological  disthiction 
who  has  not  thought  it  one  of  the  surest  paths  to 
that  eminence,  combining  so  many  and  varied  motives 
of  ambition,  to  come  forward  as  a  champion  in  this 
arena.  At  the  present  day,  it  might  be  supposed  the 
discussion  of  such  a  subject,  taken  up  as  it  has  been 
successively  in  all  its  conceivable  different  bearings, 
must  be  nearly  exhausted.  It  must,  however,  be 
borne  in  mind  that,  unlike  the  essential  doctrines  of 
Christianity,  —  "  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for- 
(jyer^"  —  these  external  accessories  constitute  a  subject 
which  of  necessity  is  perpetually  taking  somewhat,  at 
least,  of  a  new  form  with  the  successive  phases  of 
opinion  and  knowledge.  And  it  thus  becomes  not  an 
unsatisfactory  nor  unimportant  object,  from  time  to 


EVIDENCES   OF   CHEISTIANITY.  107 

time,  to  review  the  condition  in  which  the  discussion 
stands,  and  to  comment  on  the  peculiar  features  which 
at  any  particular  epoch  it  most  prominently  presents, 
as  indicative  of  strength  or  weakness,  —  of  the  ad- 
vance and  security  of  the  cause,  —  if,  in  accordance 
with  the  real  progress  of  enlightenment,  its  advocates 
have  had  the  wisdom  to  rescind  what  better  informa- 
tion showed  defective,  and  to  substitute  views  in  ac- 
cordance with  higher  knowledge  ;  or,  on  the  other 
hand,  inevitable  symptoms  of  weakness  and  ineffi- 
ciency, if  such  salutary  cautions  have  been  neglected. 
To  offer  some  general  remarks  of  this  kind  on  the 
existing  state  of  these  discussions  will  be  the  object 
of  the  present  essay. 

Before  proceeding  to  the  main  question,  we  may, 
however,  properly  premise  a  brief  reflection  on  the 
spirit  and  temper  in  which  it  should  be  discussed. 
In  writings  on  these  subjects,  it  must  be  confessed, 
we  too  often  find  indications  of  a  polemical  acrimony 
on  questions  where  a  calm  discussion  of  arguments 
would  be  more  becoming,  as  well  as,  more  consistent 
with  the  proposed  object ;  the  too  frequent  assump- 
tion of  the  part  of  the  special  partisan  and  ingenious 
advocate^  when  the  character  to  be  sustained  should 
be  rather  that  of  the  unbiased  judge ;  too  much  of 
hasty  and  captious  objection  on  the  one  hand,  or 
of  settled  and  inveterate  prejudice  on  the  other ;  too 
strong  a  tendency  not  fairly  to  appreciate,  or  even 
to  keep  out  of  sight,  the  broader  features  of  the  main 
question,  in  the  eagerness  to  single  out  particular 
salient  points  for  attack  ;  too  ready  a  disposition  to 
triumph  in  lesser  details,  rather  than  steadily  to  grasp 
more  comprehensive  principles,  and  leave  minor  diffi- 
culties to  await  their  solution,  or  to  regard  this  or 


108  STUDY   OF   THE 

that  particular  argument  as  if  the  entire  credit  of  the 
cause  were  staked  upon  it. 

And  if,  on  the  one  side,  there  is  often  a  just  com- 
plaint, that  objections  are  urged  in  a  manner  and  tone 
offensive  to  religious  feeling  and  conscientious  prepos- 
sessions, which  are,  at  least,  entitled  to  respectful  con- 
sideration :  so,  on  the  other,  there  is  too  often  evinced 
a  want  of  sympathy  with  the  difficulties  which  many 
so  seriously  feel  in  admitting  the  alleged  evidences, 
and  which  many  habitual  believers  do  not  appreciate, 
perhaps  because  they  have  never  thought  or  inquired 
deeply  on  the  subject ;  or,  what  is  more,  have  believed 
it  wrong  and  impious  to  do  so. 

Any  appeal  to  argument  must  imply  perfect  free- 
dom of  conviction.  It  is  a  palpable  absurdity  to  put 
reasons  before  a  man,  and  yet  wish  to  compel  him  to 
adopt  them,  or  to  anathematize  him  if  he  find  them 
unconvincing  ;  to  repudiate  him  as  an  unbeliever,  be- 
cause he  is  careful  to  find  satisfactory  grounds  for  his 
belief ;  or  to  denounce  him  as  a  sceptic,  because  he  is 
scrupulous  to  discriminate  the  truth  ;  to  assert  that 
Ms  honest  doubts  evince  a  moral  obliquity  ;  in  a  word, 
that  he  is  no  judge  of  his  own  mind ;  while  it  is  ob- 
viously implied  that  his  instructor  is  so  ;  or,  in  other 
words,  is  omniscient  and  infallible.  When  serious 
difficulties  have  been  felt  and  acknowledged  on  any 
important  subject,  and  a  writer  undertakes  the  task 
of  endeavoring  to  obviate  them,  it  is  but  a  fair  de- 
mand, that  if  the  reader  be  one  of  those  who  do  not 
feel  the  difficulties,  or  do  not  need  or  appreciate  any 
further  argument  to  enlighten  or  support  his  belief, 
he  should  not  cavil  at  the  introduction  of  topics  which 
may  be  valuable  to  others,  though  needless  or  distaste- 
ful to  himself.     Such  persons  are  in  no  way  called 


EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  109 

upon  to  enter  into  the  discussion  ;  but  they  are  unfair 
if  they  accuse  those  who  do  so  of  agitating  questions 
of  whose  existence  they  have  been  unconscious,  and 
of  unsettling  men's  minds  because  their  own  prepos- 
sessions have  been  long  settled,  and  they  do  not  per- 
ceive the  difficulties  of  others,  which  it  is  the  very 
aim  of  such  discussion  to  remove. 

Perhaps  most  of  the  various  parties  who  have  at  all 
engaged  in  the  discussion  of  these  subjects  are  agreed 
in  admitting  a  wide  distinction  between  the  influences 
of  feeling  and  those  of  reason,  the  impressions  of 
conscience  and  the  deductions  of  intellect,  the  dic- 
tations of  moral  and  religious  sense  and  the  conclu- 
sions from  evidence,  in  reference  especially  to  the 
questions  agitated  as  to  the  grounds  of  belief  in 
divine  revelation.  Indeed,  when  we  take  into  ac- 
count the  nature  of  the  objects  considered,  the  distinc- 
tion is  manifest  and  undeniable  ;  when  a  reference  is 
made  to  matters  of  external  fact  (insisted  on  as  such), 
it  is  obvious  that  reason  and  intellect  can  alone  be  the 
proper  judges  of  the  evidence  of  such  facts.  When, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  question  may  be  as  to  points  of 
moral  or  religious  doctrine,  it  is  equally  clear,  other 
and  higher  grounds  of  judgment  and  conviction  must 
be  appealed  to. 

In  the  questions  now  under  consideration,  both 
classes  of  arguments  are  usually  involved.  It  is  the 
professed  principle  of  at  least  a  large  section  of  those 
who  discuss  the  subject,  that  the  question  is  materially 
connected  with  the  truth  and  evidence  of  certain  ex- 
ternal alleged  historical  facts ;  while,  again,  all  will 
admit  that  the  most  essential  and  vital  portion  of  the 
inquiry  refers  to  matters  of  a  higher,  of  a  more  inter- 
nal, moral,  and  spiritual  kind. 


110  STUDY  OF  THE 

But  while  this  distinction  is  clearly  implied,  and 
even  professedly  acknowledged,  by  the  disputants,  it 
is  worthy  of  careful  remark,  how  extensively  it  is 
overlooked  and  kept  out  of  sight  in  practice  ;  how 
commonly,  almost  universally,  we  find  writers  and 
rcasoners  taking  up  the  question,  even  with  much 
ability  and  eloquence,  and  ^guing  it  out  sometimes 
on  the  one,  sometimes  on  the  other  ground,  forgetful 
of  their  own  professions,  and  in  a  way  often  quite 
inconsistent  with  them. 

Thus  we  continually  find  the  professed  advocates  of 
an  external  revelation  and  historical  evidence,  never- 
theless making  their  appeal  to  conscience  and  feeling, 
and  decrying  the  exercise  of  reason,  and  charging 
those  who  find  critical  objections  in  the  evidence  with 
spiritual  blindness  and  moral  perversity ;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  we  observe  the  professed  upholders  of 
faith  and  internal  conviction  as  the  only  sound  basis 
of  religion,  nevertheless  regarding  the  external  facts 
as  not  less  essential  truth  which  it  would  be  profane 
to  question.  It  often  seems  to  be  rather  the  want  of 
clear  apprehension  in  the  first  instance  of  the  distinct 
kind  and  character  of  such  inquiries,  when  on  the  one 
side  directed  to  the  abstract  question  of  evidence,  and 
when  on  the  other  pointing  to  the  practical  object  of 
addressing  the  moral  and  religious  feelings  and  affec- 
tions, which  causes  so  many  writers  on  these  subjects 
to  betray  an  inconsistency  between  their  professed 
purpose  and  tlicir  mode  of  carrying  it  out.  They 
avow  matter-of-fact  inquiry,  —  a  question  of  the  criti- 
cal evidence  for  alleged  events, — yet  they  pursue  it 
as  if  it  were  an  appeal  to  moral  sentiments  ;  in  which 
case  it  would  be  a  virtue  to  assent,  and  a  crime  to 


EVIDENCES   OF   CHEISTIANITY.  Ill 

deny :  if  it  be  the  one,  it  should  not  be  proposed  as 
the  other. 

Thus  it  is  the  common  language  of  orthodox  writ- 
ings and  discourses,  to  advise  the  believer,  when  ob- 
jections or  difficulties  arise,  not  to  attempt  to  offer 
a  precise  answer  or  to  argue  the  point,  but  rather  to 
look  at  the  whole  subject  as  of  a  kind  which  ought 
to  be  exempt  from  critical  scrutiny,  and  be  regarded 
with  a  submission  of  judgment,  in  the  spirit  of  humil- 
ity and  faith.  This  advice  may  be  very  just  in  refer- 
ence to  practical  impressions  ;  yet,  if  the  question 
be  one  (as  is  so  much  insisted  on)  of  external  facts, 
it  amounts  to  neither  more  nor  less  than  a  tacit  sur- 
render of  the  claims  of  external  evidence  and  histori- 
cal reality.  We  are  told  that  we  ought  to  investigate 
such  high  questions  rather  T\ith  our  affections  than 
with  our  logic,  and  approach  them  rather  with  good 
dispositions  and  right  motives,  and  with  a  desire  to 
find  the  doctrine  true  ;  and  thus  shall  discover  the 
real  assurance  of  its  truth  in  obeying  it :  suggestions 
which,  however  good  in  a  lyioi'al  and  practical  sense, 
are  surely  inapplicable  if  it  be  made  a  question  of 
facts. 

If  we  were  inquiring  into  historical  evidence  in  any 
other  case  (suppose,  e.  g.,  of  Caesar's  landing  in  Brit- 
ain) ,  it  would  be  little  to  the  purpose  to  be  told  that 
we  must  look  at  the  case  through  our  desires,  rather 
than  our  reason  ;  and  exercise  a  believing  disposition, 
rather  than  rashly  scrutinize  testimony  by  critical  cav- 
ils. Those  who  speak  thus  on  the  question  of  relig- 
ious belief,  in  fact  shift  the  basis  of  all  belief  from  the 
alleged  evidence  of  facts  to  the  influence  of  an  inter- 
nal persuasion :  they  virtually  give  up  the  evidential 
proof  so  strongly  insisted  on,  and   confess  that  the 


112  STUDY   OF  THE 

whole  is,  after  all,  a  mere  matter  of  feeling  and  sen- 
timent, just  as  much  as  those  to  whose  views  they 
so  greatly  object  as  openly  avowing  the  very  same 
thing. 

We  find  certain  forms  of  expression  commonly  ster- 
eotyped among  a  very  large  class  of  divines,  when- 
ever a  critical  difficulty  or  a  sceptical  exception  is 
urged,  which  are  very  significant  as  to  the  prevalent 
view  of  religious  evidence.  Their  reply  is  always  of 
this  tenor  :  "  These  are  not  subjects  on  which  you  can 
expect  demonstrative  evidence  :  you  must  be  satisfied 
to  accept  such  general  proof  or  probability  as  the  na- 
ture of  the  question  allows.  You  must  not  inquire 
too  curiously  into  these  things :  it  is  sufficient  that  we 
have  a  general  moral  evidence  of  the  doctrines.  Exact 
critical  discussion  will  always  rake  up  difficulties ;  to 
which,  perhaps,  no  satisfactory  answer  can  be  at  once 
given.  A  precise  sceptical  caviller  will  always  find 
new  objections  as  soon  as  the  first  are  refuted.  It  is 
in  vain  to  seek  to  conv^ince  reason,  unless  the  con- 
science and  the  will  be  first  well  disposed  to  accept  the 
truth."  Such  is  the  constant  language  of  orthodox 
theologians.  What  is  it  but  a  mere  translation  into 
other  phraseology  of  the  very  assertions  of  the  scep- 
tical transcendentalist  ? 

Indeed,  with  many  who  take  up  these  questions, 
they  are  almost  avowedly  placed  on  the  ground  of 
practical  expediency  rather  than  of  abstract  truth. 
Good  and  earnest  men  become  alarmed  for  the  dan- 
gerous consequences  they  think  likely  to  result  from 
certain  speculations  on  these  subjects  ;  and  thence,  in 
arguing  against  them,  are  led  to  assume  a  tone  of 
superiority,  as  the  guardians  of  virtue  and  censors 
of  right,-  rather  than  as  unprejudiced  inquirers  into 


EVIDENCES   OF   CHEISTIANITY.  113 

the  matters  of  fact  on  which,  nevertheless,  they  pro- 
fessedly make  the  case  rest.  And  thus  a  disposition 
has  heen  encouraged  to  regard  any  such  question  as 
one  of  right  or  ivrong",  rather  than  one  of  truth  o? 
error;  to  treat  all  objections  as  profane;  and  to 
discard  exceptions  unanswered  as  shocking  and  im- 
moral. 

If,  indeed,  the  discussion  were  carried  on  upon  the 
professed  ground  of  spiritual  impression  and  relig 
ious  feeling,  there  would  be  a  consistency  in  such  a 
course  ;  but,  when  evidential  arguments  are  avowedly 
addressed  to  the  intellect,  it  is  especially  preposterous 
to  shift  the  ground,  and  charge  the  rejection  of  them 
on  moral  motives ;  while  those  who  impute  such  bad 
motives  fairly  expose  themselves  to  the  retort,  that 
their  own  belief  may  be  dictated  by  other  considera- 
tions than  the  love  of  truth. 

Again :  in  such  inquiries  there  is  another  material 
distinction  very  commonly  lost  sight  of,  —  the  differ- 
ence between  discussing  the  truth  of  a  conclusion, 
or  opinion,  and  the  7nocle  or  means  of  arriving  at  it ;  or 
the  arguments  by  which  it  is  supported.  Either  may 
clearly  be  impugned  or  upheld  without  implicating 
the  other.  We  may  have  the  best  evidence,  but 
draw  a  wrong  conclusion  from  it;  or  we  may  sup- 
port an  incontestable  truth  by  very  fallacious  argu- 
ments. 

The  present  discussion  is  not  intended  to  be  of  a 
controversial  kind :  it  is  purely  contemplative  and 
theoretical.  It  is  rather  directed  to  a  calm  and  unpre- 
judiced survey  of  the  various  opinions  and  arguments 
adduced,  whatever  may  be  their  ulterior  tendency,  on 
these  important  questions ;  and  to  the  attempt  to 
state,  analyze,  and  estimate  them,  just  as  they  may 

H 


114  STUDY   OF  THE 

seem  really  conducive  to  the  high  object  professedly 
in  view. 

"  The  idea  of  a  positive  external  divine  revelation  of 
some  kind  has  formed  the  very  basis  of  all  hitherto 
received  systems  of  Christian  belief.  The  Romanist, 
indeed,  regards  that  revelation  as  of  the  nature  of  a 
standing  oracle,  accessible  in  the  living  voice  of  the 
Church  ;  which,  being  infallible,  of  course  sufficiently 
accredits  all  the  doctrines  it  announces,  and  consti- 
tutes them  divine.  A  more  modified  view  has  pre- 
vailed among  a  considerable  section  of  Anglican  theo- 
logians, who  ground  their  faith  on  the  same  principles 
of  Church  authority,  divested  of  its  divine  and  infal- 
lible character.  Most  Protestants,  with  more  or  less 
difference  of  meaning,  profess  to  regard  revelation  as 
once  for  all  announced,  long  since  finally  closed,  per- 
manently recorded,  and  accessible  only  in  the  written 
divine  word  contained  in  the  Scriptures ;  and  the 
discussion  with  those  outside  the  pale  of  belief  has 
been  entirely  one  as  to  the  validity  of  those  external 
marks  and  attestations  by  which  the  truth  of  the 
alleged  fact  of  such  communication  of  the  Divine 
Will  was  held  to  be  substantiated. 

The  scope  and  character  of  the  various  discussions 
raised  on  "  the  evidences  of  religion "  have  varied 
much  in  different  ages  ;  following,  of  course,  both  the 
view  adopted  of  revelation  itself,  the  nature  of  the 
objections  which  for  the  time  seemed  most  prominent, 
or  most  necessary  to  be  combated,  and  stamped  with 
the  peculiar  intellectual  character  and  reasoning  tone 
of  the  age  to  which  they  belonged. 

The  early  apologists  were  rather  defenders  of  the 
Christian  cause  generally ;  but,  when  they  entered  on 
evidential  topics,  naturally  did  so  rather  in  accordance 


EVIDENCES   OF   CHKISTIANITY.  115 

with  the  prevalent  modes  of  thought,  than  with  what 
would  now  be  deemed  a  philosophic  investigation  of 
alleged  facts  and  critical  appreciation  of  testimony  in 
support  of  them. 

In  subsequent  ages,  as  the  increasing  claims  of  in- 
fallible Church  authority  gained  ground,  to  discuss 
evidence  became  superfluous,  and  even  dangerous  and 
impious.  Accordingly,  of  this  branch  of  theological 
literature  (unless  in  the  most  entire  subjection  to 
ecclesiastical  dictation)  the  Mediaeval  Church  pre- 
sented hardly  any  specimens. 

It  was  not  perhaps  till  the  fifteenth  century  that 
any  works,  bearing  the  character  of  what  are  now 
called  treatises  on  "  tlie  evidences,"  appeared  ;  and 
these  were  probably  elicited  by  the  sceptical  spirit 
which  had  already  begun  to  show  itself,  arising  out 
of  the  subtilties  of  the  schoolmen.* 

But  in  modern  times,  and  under  Protestant  aus- 
pices, a  greater  disposition  to  follow  up  this  kind  of 
discussion  has  naturally  been  developed.  The  sterner 
genius  of  Protestantism  required  definition,  argument, 
and  proof,  where  the  Ancient  Church  had  been  con- 
tent to  impress  by  the  claims  of  authority,  veneration, 
and  prescription,  and  thus  left  the  conception  of  truth 
to  take  the  form  of  a  mere  impression  of  devotional 
feeling  or  exalted  imagination. 

Protestantism  sought  something  more  definite  and 
substantial ;  and  its  demands  were  seconded  and  sup- 
ported, more  especially  by  the  spirit  of  metaphysical 
reasoning  which  so  widely  extended  itself  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  even  into  the  domains   of  theology; 


*  Several  such  treatises  are  enumerated  and  described  by  Eichhorn. 
See  Hallam's  Lit.  of  Europe,  i.  p.  190. 


116  STUDY   OF   THE 

and  divines,  stirred  up  by  the  allegations  of  the  Deists, 
aimed  at  formal  refutations  of  their  objections,  by 
drawing  out  the  idea  and  the  proofs  of  revelation 
into  systematic  propositions  supported  by  logical  argu- 
ments. In  that  and  the  subsequent  period,  the  same 
general  style  of  argument  on  these  topics  prevailed 
among  the  advocates  of  the  Christian  cause.  The 
appeal  was  mainly  to  the  miracles  of  the  Gospels  ;  and 
here,  it  was  contended,  we  want  merely  the  same  tes- 
timony of  eyewitnesses  which  would  suffice  to  sub- 
stantiate any  ordinary  matter  of  fact.  Accordingly, 
the  narratives  w^ere  to  be  traced  to  writers  at  the  time, 
•who  were  either  themselves  eyewitnesses,  or  recorded 
the  testimony  of  those  who  were  so  ;  and,  the  direct 
transmission  of  the  evidence  being  thus  established, 
everything  was  held  to  be  demonstrated.  If  any  ante- 
cedent question  was  raised,  a  brief  reference  to  the 
Divine  Omnipotence  to  work  the  miracles,  and  to  the 
Divine  Goodness  to  vouchsafe  the  revelation  and  con- 
firm it  by  such  proofs,  was  all  that  could  be  required 
to  silence  sceptical  cavils. 

It  is  true,  indeed,  that  some  consideration  of  the 
internal  evidence  derived  from  the  excellence  of  the 
doctrines  and  morality  of  the  gospel  was  allowed  to 
enter  the  discussion  ;  but  it  formed  only  a  subordinate 
branch  of  the  evidences  of  Christianity.  The  main 
and  essential  point  was  always  the  consideration  of 
external  facts,  and  the  attestations  of  testimony  offered 
in  suppoit  of  them.  Assuming  Christianity  to  be 
essentially  connected  with  certain  outward  and  sen- 
sible events,  the  main  thing  to  be  inquired  into  and 
established  was  the  historical  evidence  of  those  events, 
and  the  genuineness  of  the  records  of  them.  If  this 
were  satisfactorily  made  out,  then  it  was  considered 


EVIDENCES   OF    CHKISTIANITY.  117 

the  object  was  accomplished.  The  external  facts  sim- 
ply substantiated,  the  intrinsic  doctrines  and  declara- 
tions of  the  gospel  must  by  necessary  consequence  be 
divine  truths. 

If  we  compare  the  general  tone,  character,  and  pre- 
tensions of  those  works,  which,  in  our  schools  and 
colleges,  have  been  regarded  as  the  standard  authori- 
ties on  the  subject  of  the  "  evidences,"  we  must  ac- 
knowledge a  great  change  in  the  taste  or  opinions  of 
the  times,  from  the  commencement  of  the  last  century 
to  the  present  day  ;  which  has  led  the  student  to  turn 
from  the  erudite  folios  of  Jackson  and  Stillingfleet,  or 
the  more  condensed  arguments  of  Clarke  "  On  the 
Attributes,"  Grotius  "  De  Yeritate,"  and  Leslie's 
*' Method  with  the  Deists,"  —  the  universal  text-books 
of  a  past  generation,  —  to  the  writings  of  Lardner 
and  Paley ;  the  latter  of  whom,  in  the  beginning  of 
the  present  century,  reigned  supreme,  the  acknowl- 
edged champion  of  revelation,  and  the  head  of  a 
school  to  which  numerous  others,  as  Campbell,  Wat- 
son, and  Douglas,  contributed  their  labors.  But,  more 
recently,  these  authors  have  been  in  an  eminent  de 
gree  superseded  by  a  recurrence  to  the  once  compara- 
tively neglected  resources  furnished  by  Bishop  Butler, 
of  so  much  less  formal,  technical,  and  positive  a  kind, 
yet  offering  wider  and  more  philosophical  views  of 
the  subject ;  still,  however,  confessedly  not  supply- 
ing altogether  that  comprehensive  discussion  which 
is  adapted  to  the  peculiar  tone  and  character  of 
thought  and  existing  state  of  knowledge  in  our  own 
times. 

The  state  of  opinion  and  information  in  different 
ages  is  peculiarly  shown  in  the  tone  and  character  of 
those  discussions  which  have  continually  arisen  affect- 


118  STUDY   OF  THE 

ing  the  grounds  of  religious  belief.      The  particular 
species  of  difficulty  or  objection  in  the  reception  of 
Christianity,  and  especially  of  its  external  manifesta- 
tions, wliich  have  been  found  most  formidable,  have 
varied  greatly  in  different  ages  according  to  the  prev- 
alent modes  of  thought  and  the  character  of  the  dom- 
inant philosophy.      Thus  the  difficulties  with  respect 
to  miraculous  evidence  in  particular  will  necessarily 
be  very  differently  viewed  hi  different  stages  of  phil- 
osophical and  physical  information.     Difficulties  in  the 
idea  of  suspensions  of  natural  laws,  in  former  ages 
were  not  at  all  felt,  canvassed,  or  thought  of ;  but,  in 
later  times,  they  have  assumed  a  much  deeper  impor- 
tance.    In  an  earlier  period  of  our  theological  litera- 
ture, the  critical  investigation  of  the  question  of  mira- 
cles was  a  point  scarcely  at  all  appreciated.     The  at- 
tacks of  the  Deists  of  the  seventeenth  and  early  part  of 
the  eighteenth  century  were  almost  wholly  directed  to 
other  points  :  but  the  speculations  of  Woolston,  and, 
still  more,  the  subsequent  influence  of  the  celebrated 
Essay  of  Hume,  had  the  effect  of  directing  the  atten- 
tion of  divines  more  pointedly  to  the  precise  topic  of 
miraculous  evidence  ;  and  to  these,  causes  was  added 
the  agitation  of  the  question  of  the  ecclesiastical  mira- 
cles, giving  rise  to  the  semi-sceptical  discussions  of 
Middle  ton,  which  called  forth  a  more  exact  spirit  of 
examination  into  such  distinctions  as  were  needed  to 
preserve  the  miracles  of  the  Gospels  from  the  criti- 
cisms applied  to  those  of  the  Church.     This  distinc- 
tion, in  fact,  involves  a  large  part  of  the  entire  ques- 
tion ;  and,  towards  marking  it  out  effectually,  various 
precautionary  rules  and  principles  were  laid  down  by 
several  writers.      Thus  Bishop  Warburton  suggested 
as  a  criterion  the  necessity  of  the  miracles  to  the  ends 


EVIDENCES  OF   CHEISTIAMTY.  119 

of  the  dispensation,*  which  he  conceived  answered 
the  demands  of  Middleton.  Bishop  Douglas  made 
it  the  test,  to  connect  miracles  with  inspiration  in 
those  who  wrought  them :  this,  he  thought,  would 
exclude  the  miracles  of  the  Church. f 

But  it  was  long  since  perceived  that  the  argument 
from  necessity  of  miracles  is,  at  best,  a  very  hazardous 
one ;  since  it  implies  the  presumption  of  constituting 
ourselves  judges  of  such  necessity,  and  admits  the 
fair  objection.  When  were  miracles  more  needed  than 
at  the  present  day  to  indicate  the  truth  amid  mani- 
fold error,  or  to  propagate  the  faith  ?  And  again  :  in 
the  other  case,  How  is  the  inspiration  to  be  ascertained 
apart  from  the  miracles  ?  or,  if  it  be,  what  is  the  use 
of  the  miracles  ?  In  fact,  in  proportion  as  external 
evidence  to  facts  is  made  the  professed  demand,  it 
follows  that  we  can  only  recur  to  those  grounds  and 
rules  by  which  the  intellect  always  proceeds  in  the 
satisfactory  investigation  of  any  questions  of  fact  and 
evidence,  especially  those  of  physical  phenomena. 
By  an  adherence  to  those  great  principles  on  which 
all  knowledge  is  acquired ;  by  a  reference  to  the 
fixed  laws  of  belief,  and  our  convictions  of  established 
order  and  analogy,  —  we  estimate  the  credibility  of 
alleged  events  and  the  value  of  testimony,  and  weigh 
them  more  carefully  in  proportion  as  the  matter  may 
appear  of  greater  moment  or  difficulty. 

In  appreciating  the  evidence  for  any  events  of  a 
striking  or  wonderful  kind,  we  must  bear  in  mind  the 
extreme  difficulty  which  always  occurs  in  eliciting 
the  truth,  dependent  not  on  the  uncertainty  in  the 
transmission  of  testimony,  but,  even  in  cases  where 

*  Div.  Leg.,  ix.  5.  f  Criterion,  pp.  239,  241. 


120  STUDY    OF   THE 

we  were  ourselves  witnesses,  on  the  enormous  influ- 
ence exerted  by  our  prepossessions  previous  to  the 
event,  and  by  the  momentary  impressions  consequent 
upon  it.  We  look  at  all  events  through  the  medium 
of  our  prejudices ;  or,  even  where  we  may  have  no 
prepossessions,  the  more  sudden  and  remarkable  any 
occurrence  may  be,  the  more  unprepared  we  are  to 
judge  of  it  accurately  or  to  view  it  calmly.  Our  after- 
representations,  especially  of  any  extraordinary  and 
striking  event,  are  always,  at  the  best,  mere  recollec- 
tions of  our  impressions,  of  ideas  dictated  by  our 
emotions  at  the  time,  of  surprise  and  astonishment 
which  the  suddenness  and  hurry  of  the  occurrence 
did  not  allow  us  time  to  reduce  to  reason,  or  to  correct 
by  the  sober  standard  of  experience  or  philosophy. 

Questions  of  this  kind  are  often  perplexed  for  want 
of  due  attention  to  the  laws  of  human  thought  and 
belief,  and  of  due  distinction  in  ideas  and  terms.  The 
proposition,  ''  that  an  event  may  be  so  incredible,  in- 
trinsically, as  to  set  aside  any  degree  of  testimony," 
in  no  way  applies  to  or  affects  the  honesty  or  veracity 
of  that  testimony,  or  the  reality  of  the  impressions  on 
the  minds  of  the  witnesses,  so  far  as  it  relates  to  the 
matter  of  sensible  fact  simply.  It  merely  means  this  : 
that,  from  the  nature  of  our  antecedent  convictions, 
the  probability  of  some  kind  of  mistake  or  deception 
someivhere,  though  we  know  not  ivhere,  is  greater  than 
the  probability  of  the  event  really  happening  in  the 
icay  and  from  the  causes  assigned. 

This,  of  course,  turns  on  the  general  grounds  of  our 
antecedent  convictions.  The  question  agitated  is  not 
that  of  mere  testimony,  of  its  value,  or  of  its  failures. 
It  refers  to  tliose  ayitccedent  considerations  which  must 
govern  our  entire  view  of  the  subject,  and  which,  being 


EVIDENCES   OF   CHEISTIANITY.  121 

dependent  on  higher  laws  of  behef,  must  be  paramount 
to  all  attestation,  or  rather  belong  to  a  provmce  dis- 
tinct from  it.  What  is  alleged  is  a  case  of  the  supernat- 
ural ;  but  no  testimony  can  reach  to  the  supernatural : 
testimony  can  apply  only  to  apparent  sensible  facts  ; 
testimony  can  only  prove  an  extraordinary  and  perhaps 
inexplicable  occurrence  or  phenomenon.  That  it  is 
due  to  supernatural  causes,  is  entirely  dependent  on 
the  previous  belief  and  assumptions  of  the  parties. 

If,  at  the  present  day,  any  very  extraordinary  and 
unaccountable  fact  were  exhibited  before  the  eyes  of 
an  unbiased,  educated,  well-informed  individual,  and 
supposing  all  suspicion  of  imposture  put  out  of  the 
question,  his  only  conclusion  would  be,  that  it  was 
something  he  was  unable  at  present  to  explain  ;  and, 
if  at  all  versed  in  physical  studies,  he  would  not  for 
an  instant  doubt,  either  that  it  was  really  due  to  some 
natural  cause,  or  that,  if  properly  recorded  and  ex- 
amined, it  would  at  some  future  time  receive  its  expla- 
nation by  the  advance  of  discovery. 

It  is  thus  the  prevalent  conviction,  that,  at  the  pres- 
ent day,  miracles  are  not  to  be  expected  ;  and,  conse- 
quently, alleged  marvels  are  commonly  discredited. 

But,  as  exceptions  proving  the  rule,  it  cannot  be 
denied,  that,  amid  the  general  scepticism,  instances 
sometimes  occur  of  particular  persons  and  parties, 
who,  on  peculiar  grounds,  firmly  believe  in  the  occur- 
rence of  certain  miracles  even  in  our  own  times.  But 
we  invariably  find  that  this  is  only  in  connection  with 
their  own  particular  tenets,  and  restricted  to  the  com- 
munion to  which  they  are  attached.  Such  manifesta- 
tions, of  course,  are  believed  to  have  a  religious  ob- 
ject ;  and  afford  to  the  votaries  a  strong  confirma- 
tion of  their  belief,  or  are  regarded  as  among  the  high 
6 


122  STUDY  OF   THE 

privileges  vouchsafed  to  an  earnest  faith.  Yet  even 
such  persons,  almost  as  a  matter  of  course,  utterly  dis- 
credit all  such  wonders  alleged  as  occurring  within 
the  pale  of  any  religion  except  their  own  ;  while  those 
of  other  communions  as  unhesitatingly  reject  the  be- 
lief in  theirs. 

To  take  a  single  instance  :  we  may  refer  to  the 
alleged  miraculous  "  tongues  "  among  the  followers  of 
the  late  Mr.  Lwing  some  years  ago.  It  is  not,  and 
was  not,  a  question  of  records  or  testimony^  or  fallibility 
of  witnesses^  or  exaggerated  or  fabulous  narratives. 
At  the  time,  the  matter  was  closely  scrutinized,  and 
inquired  into ;  and  many  perfectly  unprejudiced,  and 
even  sceptical  persons,  themselves  witnessed  the  ef- 
fects, and  were  fully  convinced,  —  as,  indeed,  were 
most  candid  inquirers  at  the  time,  —  that,  after  all 
reasonable  or  possible  allowance  for  the  influence  of 
delusion  or  imposture,  beyond  all  question,  certain 
extraordinary  manifestations  did  occur.  But  just  as 
little  as  the  mere  fact  could  be  disputed,  did  any  sober- 
minded  person,  except  those  immediately  interested, 
or  influenced  hy  peculiar  views,  for  a  moment  believe 
those  effects  to  be  miraculous.  Even  granting  that 
they  could  not  be  explained  by  any  known  form  of 
nervous  affection,  or  on  the  like  physiological  grounds ; 
still  that  they  were  in  some  way  to  be  ascribed  to 
natural  causes,  as  yet  perhaps  little  understood,  was 
what  no  one  of  ordinarily  cultivated  mind  or  dispas- 
sionate judgment  ever  doubted. 

On  such  questions  we  can  only  hope  to  form  just 
and  legitimate  conclusions  from  an  extended  and  un- 
prejudiced study  of  the  laws  and  phenomena  of  the 
natural  world.  The  entire  range  of  the  inductive 
philosophy  is  at  once  based  upon,  and  in  every  in- 


EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  123 

stance  tends  to  confirm  by  immense  accumulation  of 
evidence,  the  grand  truth  of  the  universal  order  and , 
constancy  of  natural  causes  as  a  primary  law  of  belief ; 
so  strongly  entertained  and  fixed  in  the  mind  of  every 
truly  inductive  inquirer,  that  he  can  hardly  even  con- 
ceive the  possibility  of  its  failure.  Yet  we  sometimes 
hear  language  of  a  different  kmd.  There  are  still 
some  who  dwell  on  the  idea  of  Spinoza,  and  contend 
that  it  is  idle  to  object  to  miracles  as  violations  of  nat- 
ural laws,  because  we  know  not  the  extent  of  nature  ; 
that  all  inexplicable  phenomena  are,  in  fact,  miracles, 
or,  at  any  rate,  mysteries  ;  that  we  are  surrounded  by 
miracles  in  nature,  and  on  all  sides  encounter  phe- 
nomena which  baffle  our  attempts  at  explanation,  and 
limit  the  powers  of  scientific  investigation, — phenom- 
,ena  whose  causes  or  nature  we  are  not,  and  prob- 
ably never  shall  be,  able  to  explain. 

Such  are  the  arguments  of  those  who  have  failed 
to  grasp  the  positive  scientific  idea  of  the  power  of 
the  inductive  philosophy,  or  the  order  of  nature.  The 
boundaries  of  nature  exist  only  where  our  present 
knowledge  places  them :  the  discoveries  of  to-morrow 
will  alter  and  enlarge  them.  The  inevitable  progress 
of  research  must,  within  a  longer  or  shorter  period, 
unravel  all  that  seems  most  marvellous  ;  and  what  is 
at  present  least  understood  will  become  as  familiarly 
known  to  the  science  of  the  future,  as  those  points 
which  a  few  centuries  ago  were  involved  in  equal 
obscurity,  but  are  now  thoroughly  understood. 

None  of  these  or  the  like  instances  are  at  all  of  the 
same  kind,  or  have  any  characteristics  in  common  with 
the  idea  of  whi^l»is  implied  by  the  term  "  miracle  ;  " 
which  is  asserted  to  mean  something  at  variance  with 
nature  and  law.     There  is  not  the  slightest  analogy 


124  STUDY   OF   THE 

between  an  unknown  or  inexplicable  phenomenon 
and  a  supposed  suspension  of  a  known  law :  even  an 
exceptional  case  of  a  known  law  is  included  in  some 
larger  law.  Arbitrary  interposition  is  wholly  different 
in  kind :  no  argument  from  the  one  can  apply  to  the 
other. 

The  enlarged  critical  and  inductive  study  of  the 
natural  world  cannot  but  tend  powerfully  to  evince 
the  inconceivableness  of  imagined  interruptions  of 
natural  order  or  supposed  suspensions  of  the  laws  of 
matter,  and  of  that  vast  series  of  dependent  causation 
vrhich  constitutes  the  legitimate  field  for  the  investi- 
gation of  science,  whose  constancy  is  the  sole  warrant 
for  its  generalizations,  while  it  forms  the  substantial 
basis  for  the  grand  conclusions  of  natural  theology. 
Such  would  be  the  grounds  on  which  our  convictions 
would  be  regulated  as  to  marvellous  events  at  the 
present  day ;  such  the  rules  which  we  should  apply  to 
the  like  cases  narrated  in  ordinary  history. 

But  though,  perhaps,  the  more  general  admission, 
at  the  present  day,  of  critical  principles  in  the  study  of 
history,  as  well  as  the  extension  of  physical  knowl- 
edge, has  done  something  to  diffuse  among  the  better 
informed  class  more  enlightened  notions  on  this  sub- 
ject, taken  abstractedly  ;  yet  they  may  be  still  much 
at  a  loss  to  apply  such  principles  in  all  cases,  and 
readily  conceive  that  there  are  possible  instances  in 
which  large  exceptions  must  he  made. 

The  above  remarks  may  be  admitted  in  respect  to 
events  at  the  present  day  and  those  narrated  in  ordi- 
nary history ;  but  it  will  be  said,  there  may  be  and 
there  are  cases  which  are  not  like  those  of  the  present 
times  nor  of  ordinary  history. 

Thus,   if  we   attempt   any   uncompromising,   rigid 


EVIDENCES   OF   CHEISTIANITY.  125 

scrutiny  of  the  Christian  miracles  on  the  same 
grounds  on  which  we  should  investigate  any  ordinary 
narrative  of  the  supernatural  or  marvellous,  we  are 
stopped  by  the  admonition,  not  to  make  an  irreverent 
and  profane  intrusion  into  what  ought  to  be  held 
sacred,  and  exempt  from  such  unhallowed  criticism 
of  human  reason. 

Yet  the  champions  of  the  "  evidences  "  of  Christi- 
anity have  professedly  rested  the  discussion  of  the  mir- 
acles of  the  New  Testament  on  the  ground  of  precise 
evidence  of  witnesses  ;  insisting  on  the  historical  char- 
acter of  the  Gospel  records,  and  urging  the  investiga- 
tion of  the  truth  of  the  facts  on  the  strict  prmciples 
of  criticism,  as  they  would  be  applied  to  any  other, 
historical  narrative.  On  these  grounds,  it  would  seem 
impossible  to  exempt  the  miraculous  parts  of  those 
narratives  from  such  considerations  as  those  which 
must  be  resorted  to  in  regard  to  marvellous  or  sup- 
posed supernatural  events  in  general.  Yet  there 
seems  an  unwillingness  to  concede  the  propriety  of 
such  examination,  and  a  disposition  to  regard  this  as 
altogether  an  exceptional  case.  But,  in  proportion  as 
it  is  so  regarded,  it  must  be  remembered,  its  strictly 
historical  character  is  forfeited,  or  at  least  tampered 
with ;  and  those  who  would  shield  it  from  the  criti- 
cisms to  which  history  and  fact  are  necessarily  amen- 
able, cannot,  in  consistency,  be  offended  at  the  alter- 
native involved,  of  a  more  or  less  mythical  inter- 
pretation. 

In  history,  generally,  our  attention  is  often  called  to 
narratives  of  the  marvellous  ;  and  there  is  a  sense  in 
which  they  may  be  viewed  with  reference  to  its  gen- 
eral purport,  and  in  connection  with  those  influences 
on  human  nature  which  play  so  conspicuous  a  part  in 


126  STUDY  OF  THE 

many  events.  Thus  it  has  been  well  remarked  by 
Dean  Milman  :  "  History,  to  be  true,  must  condescend 
to  speak  the  language  of  legend.  The  belief  of  the 
times  is  part  of  the  record  of  the  times ;  and,  though 
there  may  occur  what  may  baffle  its  more  calm  and 
searching  philosophy,  it  must  not  disdain  that  which 
was  the  primal,  almost  universal,  motive  of  human 
life."  * 

Yet,  in  a  more  general  point  of  view,  when  we  con- 
sider the  strict  office  of  the  critical  historian,  it  is 
obvious  that  such  cases  are  fair  subjects  of  analysis, 
conducted  with  the  view  of  ascertaining  their  real 
relation  to  nature  and  fact. 

From  the  general  maxim,  that  all  history  is  open  to 
criticism  as  to  its  grounds  of  evidence,  no  professed 
history  can  be  exempt,  without  forfeiting  its  historical 
character ;  and,  in  its  contents,  what  is  properly  his- 
torical, is,  on  the  same  grounds,  fairly  to  be  distin- 
guished from  what  may  appear  to  be  introduced  on 
other  authority  and  with  other  objects.  Thus  the 
general  credit  of  an  historical  narrative  does  not  ex- 
clude the  distinct  scrutiny  into  any  statements  of  a 
supernatural  kind  which  it  may  contain,  nor  super- 
sede the  careful  estimation  of  the  value  of  the  testi- 
mony on  which  they  rest,  —  the  directness  of  its  trans- 
mission from  eyewitnesses,  as  well  as  the  possibility 
of  misconception  of  its  tenor,  or  of  our  not  being  in 
possession  of  all  the  circumstances  on  which  a  correct 
judgment  can  be  formed. 

It  must,  however,  be  confessed,  that  the  propriety 
of  such  dispassionate  examination  is  too  little  appre- 
ciated, or  the  fairness  of  weighing  well  the  improb- 

*  Latin  Christianity,  vol.  i.  p.  388. 


EVIDENCES   OF   CHEISTIANITY.  127 

abilities  on  one  side  against  possible  openings  to 
misapprehension  on  the  other. 

The  nature  of  the  laws  of  all  human  belief,  and 
the  broader  grounds  of  probability  and  credibility  of 
events,  have  been  too  little  investigated  ;  and  the 
great  extent  to  which  all  testimony  must  be  modified 
by  antecedent  credibility  as  determined  by  such  gen- 
eral laws,  too  little  commonly  understood  to  be  readily 
applied  or  allowed. 

Formerly,  as  before  observed,  there  was  no  question 
as  to  general  credibility  ;  but,  in  later  times,  the  most 
orthodox  seem  to  assume  that  interposition  would  be 
generally  incredible,  yet  endeavor  to  lay  down  rules 
and  criteria  by  which  it  may  be  rendered  probable  in 
cases  of  great  emergency.  Miracles  were  formerly  the 
rule^  latterly  the  exception. 

The  arguments  of  Middleton  and  others  all  assume 
the  antecedent  incredibility  of  miracles  in  general,  in 
order  to  draw  more  precisely  the  distinction,  that,  in 
certain  cases  of  a  very  special  nature,  that  improba- 
bility may  be  removed,  as  in  the  case  of  authenticat- 
ing a  revelation.  Locke*  expressly  contends  that  it  is 
the  very  extraordinary  nature  of  such  an  emergency 
which  renders  an  extraordinary  interposition  requisite, 
and  therefore  credible. 

The  belief  in  divine  interposition  must  be  essentially 
dependent  on  what  we  previously  admit  or  believe  with 
respect  to  the  divine  attributes. 

It  was  formerly  argued,  that  every  Theist  must  ad- 
mit the  credibility  of  miracles  ;  but  this,  it  is  now 
seen,  depends  on  the  nature  and  degree  of  his  Theism, 
which  may  vary  through  many  shades  of  opinion.     It 

*  Essay,  book  i.  chap.  xvi.  §  13. 


128  STUDY   OF  THE 

depends,  in  fact,  on  the  precise  view  taken  of  the 
divine  attributes  ;  such,  of  course,  as  is  attainable 
prior  to  our  admission  of  revelation,  or  we  fall  into 
an  argument  in  a  vicious  circle.  The  older  writers 
on  natural  theology,  indeed,  have  professed  to  deduce 
very  exact  conclusions  as  to  the  divine  perfections, 
especially  Omnipotence^  —  conclusions  which,  accord- 
ing to  "the  physical  argument  already  referred  to,  ap- 
pear carried  beyond  those  limits  to  which  reason  or 
science  are  competent  to  lead  us  ;  while,  in  fact,  all 
our  higher  and  more  precise  ideas  of  the  divine  per- 
fections are  really  derived  from  that  very  revelation 
whose  evidence  is  the  point  in  question.  The  Divine 
Omnipotence  is  entirely  an  inference  from  the  language 
of  the  Bible ^  adopted  on  the  assumption  of  a  belief  in 
revelation.  That  "  with  God  nothing  is  impossible," 
is  the  very  declaration  of  Scripture :  yet  on  this  the 
whole  belief  in  miracles  is  built ;  and  thus,  with  the 
many,  that  belief  is  wholly  the  result^  not  the  antece- 
dent^ of  faith. 

But  were  these  views  of  the  divine  attributes,  on 
the  other  hand,  ever  so  well  established,  it  must  be 
considered  that  the  Theistic  argument  requires  to  be 
applied  with  much  caution  ;  since  most  of  those,  who 
have  adopted  such  theories  of  the  divine  perfections 
on  abstract  grounds,  have  made  them  the  basis  of  a 
precisely  opposite  belief;  rejecting  miracles  altogether, 
on  the  plea,  that  our  ideas  of  the  divine  perfections 
must  directly  discredit  the  notion  of  occasional  inter- 
position ;  that  it  is  derogatory  to  the  idea  of  Infinite 
Power  and  Wisdom  to  suppose  an  order  of  things  so 
imperfectly  established,  that  it  must  be  occasionally 
mterrupted  and  violated  when  the  necessity  of  the 
case  compelled,  as  the  emergency  of  a  revelation  was 


E\^DEXCES   OF   CHKISTIANITY.  129 

imagined  to  do.  But  all  such  Theistic  reasonings  are 
but  one-sided,  and,  if  pushed  further,  must  lead  to  a 
denial  of  all  active  operation  of  the  Deity  whatever, 
as  inconsistent  with  unchangeable,  infinite  perfection.* 
Such  are  the  arguments  of  Theodore  Parker,!  who 
denies  miracles  because  "everywhere  I  find  law  the 
constant  mode  of  operation  of  an  infinite  God;^^  or 
that  of  Wegscheider,J  that  the  belief  in  miracles  is 
irreconcilable  with  the  idea  of  an  eternal  God  consist- 
ent  with  himself^  &c. 

Paley's  grand  resource  is,  "  Once  believe  in  a  God, 
and  all  is  easy."  Now,  no  men  have  evinced  a  more 
deep-seated  and  devout  belief  in  the  divine  perfections 
than  the  writers  just  named,  or  others  differing  from 
them  by  various  shades  of  opinion ;  as  the  late  J. 
Sterling,  Mr.  Emerson,  and  Prof.  F.  W.  Newman. 
Yet  these  writers  have  agreed  in  the  inference,  that 
the  entire  view  of  Theistic  principles,  in  their  highest 
spiritual  purity,  is  utterly  at  variance  with  all  concep- 
tion of  suspensions  of  the  laws  of  nature,  or  with  the 
idea  of  any  kind  of  external  manifestation  addressed 
to  the  senses,  as  overruling  the  higher,  and,  as  they 
conceive,  sole  worthy  and  fitting  convictions  of  moral 
sense  and  religious  intuition. 

We  here  speak  impartially  and  disinterestedly,  since 
we  are  far  from  agreeing  in  their  reasonings,  or  even 
their  first  principles ;  but  we  think  it  deeply  incum- 
bent on  all,  who  would  fairly  reason  out  the  case  of 
miraculous  evidence  at  the  present  day,  to  give  a  full 
and  patient,  discussion  to  this  entire  class  of  arguments 
which  now  command  so  many  adherents. 

*  See  Mansel,  Bampt.  Lect.,  p.  185.     f  Theism,  &c.,p.  263,  comp.  p.  113. 

X  "  Persuasio  de  supernaturali  et  miraculosa  eademque  imraediata  Dei 
revelatione,  baud  bene  conciliari  videtur  cum  idea  Dei  JEterni,  semper  sibi 
constantis,"  &c.  —  Wegscheider,  Instil.  TheoL,  §  12. 

6*  I 


130  STUDY    OF   THE 

111  advancing  from  the  argument  for  miracles  to 
the  argument  from  miracles,  it  should,  in  the  first 
instance,  be  considered  that  the  evidential  force 
of  miracles  (to  whatever  it  may  amount)  is  wholly 
relative  to  the  apprehensions  of  the  parties  ad- 
dressed. 

Thus,  in  an  "  evidential "  point  of  view,  it  by  no 
means  follows,  supposing  we  at  this  day  were  able 
to  explain  what  in  an  ignorant  age  was  regarded  as 
a  miracle,  that  therefore  that  event  was  not  equally 
evidential  to  those  immediately  addressed.  Colum- 
bus's prediction  of  the  eclipse  to  the  native  island- 
ers was  as  true  an  argument  to  them  as  if  the  event 
had  really  been  supernatural. 

It  is  a  consideration  adopted  by  some  eminent  di- 
vines, that,  in  the  very  language  of  the  Gospels,  the 
distinction  is  always  kept  up  between  mere  "  won- 
ders" (repaTo)  and  "miracles"  or  "signs"  (arjixeia)', 
that  is  to  say,  the  latter  were  occurrences  not  viewed 
as  mere  matters  of  wonder  or  astonishment,  but  re- 
garded as  indications  of  other  truths,  specially  adapted 
to  convince  those  to  whom  they  were  addressed  in 
their  existing  stage  of  enlightenment. 

Archbishop  Whately,  besides  dwelling  on  this  dis- 
tinction, argues  that  "  the  apostles  would  not  only 
not  have  been  believed,  but  not  even  listened  to,  if 
they  had  not  first  roused  men's  attention  by  working, 
as  we  are  told  they  did,  special  (remarkable)  mira- 
cles." *     (Acts  xix.  11.) 

Some  have  gone  further,  and  have  considered  the 
application  of  miracles  as  little  more  than  is  expressed 
in  the  ancient  proverb,   Oavfiara  /jL(opoL<;,  —  which  is 

*  Lessons  on  Evidences,  vii.  §  5. 


EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  131 

supposed  to  be  nearly  equivalent  to  the  rebuke,  "  An 
evil  generation  seeketh  a  sign,"  &c.*   (Matt.  xii.  38.) 

Schleiermacher  regards  the  miracles  as  only  rela- 
tively or  apparently  such  to  the  apprehensions  of  the 
age.  By  the  Jews,  we  know  such  manifestations,  es- 
pecially the  power  of  healing,  were  held  to  consti- 
tute the  distinctive  marks  of  the  Messiah,  according 
to  the  prophecies  of  their  Scriptures.  Signs  of  an 
improper  or  irrelevant  kind  were  refused  ;  and  even 
those  which  were  granted  were  not  necessarily  nor 
universally  conclusive.  With  some  they  were  so  ;  but 
with  the  many  the  case  was  different.  The  Pharisees 
set  down  the  miracles  of  Christ  to  tiie  power  of  evil 
spirits  ;  and  in  other  cases  no  conviction  f  was  pro- 
duced, not  even  on  the  apostles.J  Even  Nicodemus, 
notwithstanding  his  logical  reasoning,  was  but  half 
convinced :  while  Jesus  himself,  especially  to  his  dis- 
ciples in  private,  referred  to  his  works  as  only  sec- 
ondary and  subsidiary  to  the  higher  evidence  of 
his  character  and  doctrine  ;  §  which  was  so  conspic- 
uous and  convincing,  even  to  his  enemies,  as  to  draw 
forth  the  admission,  "  Never  man  spake  like  this 
man." 

The  later  Jews  adopted  the  strange  legend  of  the 
"  Sepher  Toldeth  Yehsu  "  ("  Book  of  the  Generation 
of  Jesus  "),  which  describes  his  miracles  substantially 
as  in  the  Gospels,  but  says  that  he  obtained  his  power 
by  hiding  himself  in  the  Temple,  and  possessing  him- 
self of  the  secret  ineffable  name,  by  virtue  of  which 
such  wonders  could  be  wrought.  || 


*  Letter  and  Spirit,  by  Rev.  J.  Wilson,  1852,  p.  21. 
t  As,  e.  ,9.,  John  xi.  46 ;  vi.  2  -  30.     Matt.  xii.  39. 
t  Matt.  xvi.  9.     Luke  xxiv.  21  -  25.  §  John  xiv.  11. 

11   Orobio,  a  Jewish  writer,  quoted  by  Limborch  (De  Verit.,  pp.  12-156), 
observes :  "  Non  credideruut  Jud»i  non  quia  opera  ilia  qua  in  Evangelic 


132  STUDY   OF   THE 

All  moral  evidence  must  essentially  have  respect 
to  the  parties  to  be  convinced.  "  Signs  "  might  be 
adapted  peculiarly  to  the  state  of  moral  or  intellect- 
ual progress  of  one  age,  or  one  class  of  persons,  and 
not  be  suited  to  that  of  others.  With  the  contem- 
poraries of  Christ  and  the  apostles,  it  was  not  a 
question  of  testimony  or  credibility :  it  was  not  the 
mere  occurrence  of  what  they  all  regarded  as  a  su- 
pernatural event,  as  such,  but  the  particular  character 
to  be  assigned  to  it,  which  was  the  point  in  question. 
And  it  is  to  the  entire  difference  in  the  ideas,  prepos- 
session, modes,  and  grounds  of  belief  in  those  times, 
that  we  may  trace  the  reason  why  miracles,  which 
would  be  incredible  now,  were  not  so  in  the  age  and 
under  the  circumstances  in  which  they  are  stated  to 
have  occurred. 

The  force  and  function  of  all  moral  evidence  is 
nullified  and  destroyed,  if  we  seek  to  apply  that  kind 
of  argument  which  does  not  find  a  response  in  the 
previous  views  or  impressions  of  the  individual  ad- 
dressed. All  evidential  reasoning  is  essentially  an 
adaptation  to  the  conditions  of  mind  and  thought  of 
the  parties  addressed,  or  it  fails  in  its  object.  An 
evidential  appeal,  which  in  a  long-past  age  was  con- 
vincing as  made  to  the  state  of  knowledge  in  that  age, 
might  have  not  only  no  effect,  but  even  an  injurious 
tendency,  if  urged  in  the  present,  and  referring  to 
what  is  at  variance  with  existing  scientific  concep- 
tions ;  just  as  the  arguments  of  the  present  age  would 
have  been  unintelligible  to  a  former. 

narrantur  a  Jesu  facta  esse  negabant,  sed  quia  iis  se  persuader!  non  sunt 
passi  ut  Jesum  crederent  Messiam."  Celsus  ascribed  the  Christian  mira- 
cles to  magic  (Origen  cont.  Cels.,  i.  38;  ii.  9),  as  Julian  did  those  of  St. 
Paul  to  superior  knowledge  of  nature  (Ap.  Cyr.,  iii.  100).  The  general 
charge  of  magic  is  noticed  by  TertuUian,  Ap/23.  See  also  Dean  Lyall, 
Propagdia  Proplietica,  439 ;  Neander,  Hist.  i.  67. 


EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  133 

In  his  earlier  views  of  miracles,  Dr.  J.  H.  Newman  * 
maintained  (agreeing  therein  with  Paulus  and  Rosen- 
miiller)  that  most  of  the  Christian  miracles  could  only 
be  evidential  at  the  time  they  were  wrought,  and  are 
not  so  at  present ;  a  view  in  which  a  religious  writer 
of  a  very  different  school,  Athanase  Coquerel,!  seems 
to  concur,  alleging  that  they  can  avail  only  in  found- 
ing a  faith,  not  in  preserving  it. 

This  was  also  the  argument  of  several  of  the  re- 
formers ;  as  Luther,  Huss,  and  others  f  have  reason- 
ably contemplated  the  miracles  as  a  part  of  the  peculi- 
arities of  the  first  outward  manifestation  and  develop- 
ment of  Christianity  :  like  all  other  portions  of  the 
divine  dispensations,  specially  adapted  to  the  age  and 
the  condition  of  those  to  whom  they  were  immediately 
addressed ;  but  restricted  apparently  to  those  ages, 
and,  at  any  rate,  not  in  the  same  form  continued  to 
subsequent  times,  when  the  application  of  them  would 
be  inappropriate. 

The  force  of  the  appeal  to  miracles  must  ever  be 
essentially  dependent  on  the  preconceptions  of  the 
parties  addressed.  Yet,  even  in  an  age  or  among  a 
people  entertaining  an  indiscriminate  belief  in  the 
supernatural,  the  allegation  of  particular  miracles  as 
evidential  may  be  altogether  vain  :  the  very  extent  of 
their  belief  may  render  it  inejBfective  in  furnishing 
proofs  to  authenticate  the  communications  of  any 
teacher  as  a  divine  message.  The  constant  belief  in 
the  miraculous  may  neutralize  all  evidential  distinc- 
tions which  it  may  be  attempted  to  deduce.  Of  this 
we  have  a  striking  instance  on  record,  in  the  labors 


*  Essay  on  Miracles,  &c.,  p.  107. 

t  Christianity,  &c.,  Davison's  translation,  1847,  p.  226. 

X  See  Seckendorf  s  Hist.  Luther,  iii.  633. 


134  STUDY   OF   THE 

of  the  missionary,  Henry  Martyn,  among  the  Persian 
Mahometans.  They  believed  readily  all  that  he  told 
them  of  the  Scrijoture  miracles,  but  directly  paralleled 
them  by  wonders  of  their  own.  They  were  proof 
against  any  argument  from  the  resurrection,  because 
they  held  that  their  own  sheiks  had  the  power  of 
raising  the  dead. 

It  is  also  stated,  that  the  later  Jewish  Rabbis,  on 
the  same  plea  that  miracles  were  believed  to  be 
wrought  by  so  many  teachers  of  the  most  different 
doctrines,  denied  their  evidential  force  altogether.* 

By  those  who  take  a  more  enlarged  survey  of  the 
subject,  it  cannot  fail  to  be  remarked  how  different 
has  been  the  spirit  in  which  miracles  were  con- 
templated, as  they  are  exhibited  to  us  in  the  earlier 
stages  of  ecclesiastical  literature,  from  that  in  which 
they  have  been  regarded  in  modern  times  ;  and  this 
especially  in  respect  to  that  particular  view  which 
has  so  intimately  connected  them  with  precise  "  evi- 
dential arguments,"  and  by  a  school  of  writers,  of 
whom  Paley  may  be  taken  as  the  type,  and  who 
regard  them  as  the  sole  external  proof  and  certificate 
of  a  divine  revelation. 

But,  at  the  present  day,  this  "  evidential "  view  of 
miracles  as  the  sole,  or  even  the  principal,  external 
attestation  to  the  claims  of  a  divine  revelation,  is 
a  species  of  reasoning  which  appears  to  have  lost 
ground  even  among  the  most  earnest  advocates  of 
Christianity.  It  is  now  generally  admitted  that  Paley 
took  too  exclusive  a  view  in  asserting  that  we  cannot 
conceive  a  revelation  substantiated  in  any  other  way ; 
and  it  has  been  even  more  directly  asserted  by  some 

*  For  some  instances  of  this  class  of  objections,  see  Dean  Lyall's  Pro- 
psedia  Frophetica,  p.  437,  et  seq. 


EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  185 

zealous  supporters  of  Christian  doctrine,  that  the 
external  evidences  are  altogether  inappropriate  and 
worthless. 

Thus,  by  a  school  of  writers  of  the  most  highly 
orthodox  pretensions,  it  is  elaborately  argued  to  the 
effect  that  revelation  ought  to  be  believed,  though 
destitute  of  strict  evidence,  either  internal  or  exter- 
nal, and  though  we  neither  see  it  nor  know  it.*  And 
again:  "We  must  be  as  sure  that  the  bishop  is  Christ's 
appointed  representative,  as  if  we  actually  saw  him 
work  miracles  as  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  did."  f 
Another  writer  of  the  same  school  exclaims,  "As  if 
evidence  to  the  word  of  God  were  a  thing  to  be  tol- 
erated by  a  Christian,  except  as  an  additional  con- 
demnation for  those  who  reject  it,  or  as  a  sort  of 
exercise  and  indulgence  for  a  Christian  understand- 
ing !  "  J  Thus,  wliile  the  highest  section  of  Anglican 
orthodoxy  does  not  hesitate  openly  to  disavow  the  old 
e\ddential  argument,  referring  everything  to  the  au- 
thority of  the  Church,  the  more  moderate  virtually 
discredit  it  by  a  general  tone  of  vacillation  between 
the  antagonistic  claims  of  reason  and  faith,  —  intui- 
tion and  evidence  ;  while  the  extreme  "  evangelical " 
school,  strongly  asserting  the  literal  truth  of  the  Bible, 
seeks  its  evidence  wholly  in  spiritual  impressions,  re- 
garding all  exercise  of  the  reason  as  partaking  in  the 
nature  of  sin.  But,  even  among  less  prejudiced  think- 
ers, we  find  indications  of  similar  views. §  Thus  a  very 
able  critic,  writing  in  express  defence  of  the  Christian 
cause,  speaks  of  that  "  accumulation  of  historical  testi- 
monies" "which  the  last  age  erroneously  denominated 
the  evidertces  of  Christianity."      And  the  poet  Cole- 

*  See  Tracts  for  the  Times,  No.  Ixxxv.  pp.  85  -  100.  f  Tract  No.  x.  p.  4. 
X  British  Critic,  No.  xlviii.  p.  304.  §  Edin.  Eeview,  No.  cxli. 


136  STUDY   OF  THE 

ridge,  —  than  whom  no  writer  has  been  more  earnest 
in  upholding  and  defending  Christianity,  even  in  its 
most  orthodox  form,  —  in  speaking  of  its  external  at- 
testations, impatiently  exclaims,  "  Evidences  of  Chris- 
tianity !  I  am  weary  of  the  word.  Make  a  man  feel 
the  want  of  it,  .  .  .  and  you  may  safely  trust  it  to 
its  own  evidence."  * 

But  still  further  :  Paley's  well-known  conclusion  to 
the  fifth  book  of  his  ''  Moral  Philosophy,"  pronounced 
by  Dr.  Parr  to  be  the  finest  prose  passage  in  English 
literature  ;  more  especially  his  filial  summing-up  of 
the  evidential  argument  in  the  words,  "  He  alone  dis- 
covers, who  proves  ;  and  no  man  can  prove  this  point 
[a  future  retribution],  but  the  teacher  who  testifies 
by  miracles  that  his  doctrine  comes  from  God,"  — 
calls  forth  from  Coleridge  an  emphatic  protest  against 
the  entire  principle,  as  being ^at  variance  with  that 
moral  election  which  he  would  make  the  essential 
basis  of  religious  belief ;  f  to  which  he  adds,  in  an- 
other place,  "  The  cordial  admiration  with  which  I 
peruse  the  preceding  passage  as  a  masterpiece  of  com- 
position, would,  could  I  convey  it,  serve  as  a  measure 
of  the  vital  importance  I  attach  to  the  convictions 
which  impelled  me  to  animadvert  on  the  same  pas- 
sage as  doctrine. "J 

Some  of  the  most  strenuous  assertors  of  miracles 
have  been  foremost  to  disclaim  the  notion  of  their 
being  the  sole  certificate  of  divine  communication,  and 
have  maintained  that  the  true  force  of  the  Christian 
evidences  lies  in  the  union  and  combination  of  the 
external  testimony  of  miracles  with  the  internal  ex- 
cellence  of  the   doctrine  ;   thus,  in   fact,  'practically 

*  Aids  to  Reflection,  i.  p.  333.  f  lb.,  p.  278.  %  lb.,  p.  338. 


EVIDENCES  OF   CHEISTIANITY.  137 

making  the  latter  the  real  test  of  the  admissihility  of 
the  former. 

The  necessity  for  such  a  combination  of  the  evidence 
of  miracles  with  the  test  of  the  doctrine  inculcated,  is 
acknowledged  in  the  Bible,  both  under  the  old  and 
the  new  dispensations.  We  read  of  false  prophets 
who  might  predict  signs  and  wonders,  which  might 
come  to  pass  ;  but  this  was  to  be  of  no  avail  if  they 
led  their  hearers  "  after  other  gods."  * 

In  like  manner,  "  if  an  angel  from  heaven,"  preached 
any  other  gospel  to  the  Galatians,  they  were  to  reject 
it ;  f  and,  even  according  to  Christ's  own  admonitions, 
false  Christs  and  false  prophets  should  show  signs  and 
wonders,  such  as  might  "  deceive,  if  possible,  the  very 
elect."  X 

According  to  this  view,  the  main  ground  of  the 
admissibility  of  external  attestations  is  the  worthiness 
of  their  object,  —  the  doctrine :  its  unworthiness  will 
discredit  even  the  most  distinctly  alleged  apparent 
miracles  ;  and  such  worthiness  or  unworthiness  ap- 
peals solely  to  our  moral  judgment. 

No  man  has  dwelt  more  forcibly  on  miraculous 
evidence  than  Archbishop  Whately  ;  yet,  in  relation 
to  the  character  of  Christ  as  conspiring  with  the  ex- 
ternal attestations  of  his  mission,  he  strongly  remarks 
(speaking  of  some  who  would  ascribe  to  Christ  an 
unworthy  doctrine,  an  equivocal  mode  of  teaching), 
"  If  I  could  believe  Jesus  to  have  been  guilty  of  such 
subterfuges,  ...  I  not  only  could  not  acknowledge 
him  as  sent  from  God,  but  should  reject  him  with  the 
deepest  moral  indignation."  § 

Dean  Lyall  enters  largely  into  this  important  quali- 

*  Deut.  xiii.  1.  f  Gal.  i.  8.  %  Matt.  xxiv.  24. 

§  Kingdom  of  Chiist,  Essay  i.  §  12. 


138  STUDY   OF   THE 

ficatioii  in  his  defence  of  the  miraculous  argument ; 
applying  it  in  the  most  unreserved  manner  to  the 
ecclesiastical  miracles,*  which  he  rejects  at  once  as 
having  no  connection  with  doctrine.  We  have  also 
on  record  the  remark  of  Dr.  Johnson  :  "  Why,  sir, 
Hume,  taking  the  proposition  simply,  is  right;  but 
the  Christian  revelation  is  not  proved  by  miracles 
alone,  but  as  connected  with  prophecies  and  with 
the  doctrines  in  confirmation  of  which  miracles  were 
wrought."  t 

This  has,  indeed,  been  the  common  argument  of 
the  most  approved  divines :  it  is  that  long  ago  urged 
by  Dr.  S.  Clarke, J  and  recently  supported  by  Dean 
Trench. §  Yet  what  is  it  but  to  acknowledge  the 
right  of  an  appeal,  superior  to  that  of  all  miracles, 
to  our  own  moral  tribunal,  —  to  the  principle,  that 
"  the  human  mind  is  competent  to  sit  in  moral  and 
spiritual  tribunal  on  a  professed  revelation?"  —  in 
virtue  of  which.  Prof.  F.  Newman,  as  well  as  many 
other  inquirers,  have  come  to  so  very  opposite  a  con- 
clusion. 

Again,  it  has  been  strongly  urged  by  the  last-named 
writer,  if  miracles  are  made  the  sole  criterion,  then 
amid  the  various  difficulties  attending  the  scrutiny  of 
evidence  and  the  detection  of  imposture,  an  advantage 
is  clearly  given  to  the  shrewd  sceptic  over  the  simple- 
minded  and  well-disposed  disciple,  utterly  fatal  to  the 
purity  of  faith.  II 

The  view  of  miraculous  evidence  which  allows  it 
to  be  taken  only  in  connection  with,  and,  in  fact,  in 
subserviency  to,  the  moral  and  internal  proof  derived 


*  Propgedia  Prophetica,  p.  441.        |  Boswell's  Life,  iii.  169;  ed.  1826. 

X  Evidences  of  Natural  and  Kevealed  Picligion,  §  xiv. 

I  Notes  on  Miracles,  p.  27.  ||  See  Phases  of  Faith,  p.  154. 


EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  139 

from  the  character  of  the  doctrine,  has  been  pushed 
to  a  greater  extent  by  the  writer  last  named ;  who 
asks,  What  is  the  vahie  of  "  faith  at  second-hand  ?  " 
^  Ought  any  external  testimony  to  overrule  internal 
conviction  ?  Ought  any  moral  truth  to  be  received  in 
mere  obedience  to  a  miracle  of  sense  ?  *  and  observes, 
that  a  miracle  can  only  address  itself  to  our  external 
senses,  and  that  internal  and  moral  impressions  must 
be  deemed  of  a  kind  paramount  to  external  and  sen- 
sible. 

If  it  be  alleged  that  this  internal  sense  may  be 
delusive,  not  less  so,  it  is  replied,  may  the  external 
senses  deceive  us  as  to  the  world  of  sense  and  exter- 
nal evidence.  The  same  author,  however,  expressly 
allows,  that  the  claims  of  "  the  historical "  and  "  the 
spiritual,"  the  proofs  addressed  to  "  reason  "  and  to 
the  "  internal  sense,"  may  each  be  properly  enter- 
tained in  their  respective  provinces :  the  danger  lies 
in  confounding  them,  or  mistaking  the  one  for  the 
other. 

Even  in  the  estimation  of  external  evidence,  every- 
thing depends  on  our  preliminary  moral  convictions, 
and  upon  deciding,  in  the  first  instance,  whether,  on 
the  one  hand,  we  are  "  to  abandon  moral  conviction 
at  the  bidding  of  a  miracle,"  or,  on  the  other,  to  make 
conformity  with  moral  principles  the  sole  test  both  of 
the  evidences  and  of  the  doctrines  of  revelation. 

In  point  of  fact,  he  contends  that  the  main  actual 
appeal  of  the  apostles,  especially  of  St.  Paul,  was  not 
to  outward  testimony  or  logical  argument,  but  to 
spiritual  assurances ;  that,  even  when  St.  Paul  does 
enter  on  a  sort  of  evidential  discussion,  his  reasoning 
is  very  unlike  what   a   Paley  would   have   exacted ; 

*  See  Phases  of  Faith,  pp.  82, 108,  201,  1st  ed. 


140  STUDY   OF   THE 

that  all  real  evidence  is  of  the  spirit,  which  alone 
can  judge  of  spiritual  things  ;  that  the  apostles  did 
not  go  about  proclaiming  an  infallible  book,  but  the 
convert  was  to  be  convinced  by  his  own  internal  judg- 
ment, not  called  on  to  resign  it  to  a  systematized  and 
dogmatic  creed.  And,  altogether,  the  reasoning  of  the 
apostles  (wherever  they  enter  upon  the  department  of 
reasoning)  was  not  according  to  our  logic,  but  only  in 
accordance  with  the  knowledge  and  philosophy  of  the 
age. 

Thus,  in  this  fundamental  assumption  of  internal 
evidence,  some  of  the  most  orthodox  writers  are,  in 
fact,  in  close  agreement  with  those  nominally  of  a  very 
opposite  school. 

It  was  the  argument  of  Doderlein,  that  ''  the  truth 
of  the  doctrine  does  not  depend  on  the  miracles,  but 
we  must  first  be  convinced  of  the  doctrine  by  its  in- 
ternal evidence." 

De  Wette  and  others,  of  the  rationalists,  expressly 
contend,  that  the  real  evidence  of  the  divinity  of  any 
doctrine  can  only  be  its  accordance  with  the  dicta- 
tions of  this  moral  sense  ;  and  this,  Wegscheider  fur- 
ther insists,  was,  in  fact,  the  actual  appeal  of  Christ  in 
his  teaching.* 

In  a  word,  on  this  view  it  would  follow,  that 
all  external  attestation  would  seem  superfluous  if  it 
concur  with,  or  to  be  rejected  if  it  oppose,  these 
moral  convictions. f     Thus  a  considerable  school  have 


*  "  Jesus  ipse  doctrinam  qnam  tradidit  divinam  esse  professus  est,  quan- 
tum divina  ejus  indoles  ab  homine  vere  relifrioso  proboque  bene  cognosci 
potest  atque  dijudicari."  —  Wegscheider,  in  Joh.  vii.  17. 

"  Nulla  alia  ratio  et  via  eas  [doctrinas]  examinandi  datur  quam  ut  ilia- 
rum  placita  cum  iis  qnne  via  naturali  rectaj  ratioiiis  de  Deo  ejusque  volun- 
late  ipsi  innotuerint  diligenter  componat  et  ad  norinam  sine  omni  supersti- 
tione  examinet."  —  Wegscheider,  Jnstit.  Tlieol.  Chris.  Dogm.,  §  11,  p.  38. 

t  Such  was  the  argument  of  the  Characteristics,  vol.  ii.  p.  334,  ed.  1727. 


EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  141 

been  disposed  to  look  to  the  intrinsic  evidence  only^ 
and  to  accept  the  declarations  of  the  gospel  solely  on 
the  ground  of  their  intrinsic  excellence,  and  accord- 
ance with  our  best  and  highest  moral  and  religious 
convictions  ;  a  view  which  would  approach  very  nearly 
to  rejecting  its  peculiarities  altogether. 

Thus  considerations  of  a  very  different  nature  are 
now  introduced  from  those  formerly  entertained,  and 
of  a  kind  which  affect  the  entire  primary  conception 
of  "  a  revelation  "  and  its  authority,  and  not  merely 
any  alleged  external  attestation  of  its  truth.  Thus 
any  discussion  of  the  "  evidences  "  at  the  present  day 
must  have  a  reference  equally  to  the  influence  of  the 
various  systems,  whether  of  ancient  precedent  or  of 
modern  illumination,  which  so  widely  and  powerfully 
affect  the  state  of  opinion  or  belief. 

In  whatever  light  we  regard  the  "  evidences  "  of 
religion,  to  be  of  any  effect,  whether  external  or 
internal,  they  must  always  have  a  special  reference 
to  the  peculiar  capacity  and  apprehension  of  the  party 
addressed.  Points  which  may  be  seen  to  involve  the 
greatest  difficulty  to  more  profound  inquirers  are 
often  such  as  do  not  occasion  the  least  perplexity  to 
ordinary  minds,  but  are  allowed  to  pass  without  hesi- 
tation. To  them,  all  difficulties  are  smoothed  down ; 
all  objections  (if  for  a  moment  raised)  are  at  once 
answered  by  a  few  plausible,  commonplace  generali- 
ties, which,  to  their  minds,  are  invested  with  the 
force  of  axiomatic  truths,  and  to  question  which  they 
would  regard  as  at  once  idle  and  impious. 

On  the  other  hand,  exceptions  held  forth  as  fatal 
by  the  shallow  caviller  are  seen  by  the  more  deeply 
reflecting  in  all  their  actual  littleness  and  fallacy. 
But  for  the  sake  of  all  parties  at  the  present  day, 


142  STUDY   OF   THE 

especially  those  who  at  least  profess  a  disposition  for 
pursuing  the  serious  discussion  of  such  momentous 
subjects,  it  becomes  imperatively  necessary  that  such 
views  of  it  should  be  suggested  as  may  be  really 
suitable  to  better-informed  minds,  and  may  meet  the 
increasing  demands  of  an  age  pretending,  at  least,  to 
greater  enlightenment. 

Those  who  have  reflected  most  deeply  on  the  na- 
ture of  the  argument  from  external  evidence  will 
admit,  that  it  would  naturally  possess  very  different  de- 
grees of  force  as  addressed  to  different  ages ;  and,  in 
a  period  of  advanced  physical  knowledge,  the  refer- 
ence to  what  was  believed  in  past  times,  if  at  vari- 
ance with  principles  now  acknowledged,  could  afford 
little  ground  of  appeal ;  in  fact,  would  damage  the 
argument  rather  than  assist  it. 

Even  some  of  the  older  writers  assign  a  mnch  lower 
place  to  the  evidence  of  miracles ;  contrasting  it  with 
the  conviction  of  realfaith^  as  being  merely  a  prepara- 
tory step  to  it.  Thus  an  old  divine  observes,  "  Ad- 
ducuntur  primum  ratione  exteri  ad  fidem',  et  quasi 
prseparantur  ;  .  .  .  .  signis  ergo  et  miraculis  via  fidei 
per  sensus  et  rationem  sternitur."* 

And  here  it  should  be  especially  noticed,  as  charac- 
teristic of  the  ideas  of  his  age,  that  this  writer  classes 
the  sensible  evidence  of  miracles  along  with  the  con- 
victions of  reason^  —  the  very  opposite  to  the  view 
which  would  now  be  adopted,  indicative  of  the  diiBfer- 
ence  in  physical  conceptions,  which  connects  miracles 
rather  with  faith  as  they  are  seen  to  be  inconceivable 
to  reason. 

These  prevalent  tendencies  in  the  opinions  of  the 

*  Melcliior  Canus,  Loci.  Theol.,  ix.  6,  about  1540. 


EVIDENCES   OF   CHEISTIANITY.  143 

age  cannot  but  be  regarded  as  connected  with  the 
increasing  admission  of  those  broader  views  of  phys- 
ical truth  and  universal  order  in  nature  which  have 
been  followed  out  to  higher  contemplations,  and  point 
to  the  acknowledgment  of  an  overruling  and  all-per- 
vading Supreme  Intelligence. 

In  advancing  beyond  these  conclusions  to  the  doc- 
trines of  revelation,  we  must  recognize  both  the  due 
claims  of  science  to  decide  on  points  properly  belong- 
ing to  the  world  of  matter^  and  the  independence  of 
such  considerations  which  characterizes  the  disclosure 
of  spiritual  truth,  as  such. 

All  reason  and  science  conspire  to  the  confession, 
that,  beyond  the  domain  of  physical  causation  and  the 
possible  conceptions  of  intellect  or  knowledge^  there 
lies  open  the  boundless  region  of  spiritual  things, 
which  is  the  sole  dominion  of  faith ;  and  while  in- 
tellect and  philosophy  are  compelled  to  disown  the 
recognition  of  anything  in  the  world  of  matter  at  va- 
riance with  the  first  principle  of  the  laws  of  matter,  — 
the  universal  order  and  indissoluble  unity  of  physical 
causes,  —  they  are  the  more  ready  to  admit  the  higher 
claims  of  divine  mysteries  in  the  invisible  and  spirit- 
ual world.  Advancing  knowledge,  while  it  asserts  the 
dominion  of  science  in  physical  things,  confirms  that 
of  faith  in  spiritual  :  we  thus  neither  impugn  the 
generalizations  of  philosophy,  nor  allow  them  to  in- 
vade the  dominion  of  faith,  and  admit  that  what  is 
not  a  subject  for  a  problem  may  hold  its  place  in  a 
creed. 

In  an  evidential  point  of  view,  it  has  been  admitted 
by  some  of  the  most  candid  divines,  that  the  apj^eal 
to  miracles,  however  important  in  the  early  stages  of 
the  gospel,  has  become  less  material  in  later  times ; 


144  STUDY   OF   THE 

and  others  have  even  expressly  pointed  to  this  as  the 
reason  wliy  tlicy  have  been  withdrawn  :  whilst,  at  the 
present  day,  the  most  earnest  advocates  of  evangelical 
faith  admit  that  ontward  marvels  are  needless  to  spir- 
itual conviction,  and  triumph  in  the  greater  moral 
miracle  of  a  converted  and  regenerate  soul. 

They  echo  the  declaration  of  St.  Chrysostom,  "  If 
you  are  a  believer  as  you  ought  to  be,  and  love  Christ 
as  you  ought  to  love  him,  you  have  no  need  of  mira- 
cles ;  for  these  are  given  to  unbelievers."  * 

After  all,  the  evidential  argument  has  but  little  act- 
ual weight  with  the  generality  of  believers.  The  high 
moral  convictions,  often  referred  to  for  internal  evi- 
dence, are,  to  say  the  least,  probably  really  felt  by  very 
few,  and  the  appeal  made  to  miracles  as  proofs  of 
revelation  by  still  fewer.  A  totally  different  feeling 
actuates  the  many  ;  and  the  spirit  of  faith  is  acknowl- 
edged where  there  is  little  disposition  to  reason  at  all, 
or  where  moral  and  philosophical  considerations  are 
absolutely  rejected  on  the  highest  religious  grounds, 
and  everything  referred  to  the  sovereign  power  of 
divine  grace. 

Matters  of  clear  and  positive  fact,  investigated  on 
critical  grounds  and  supported  by  exact  evidence,  are 
properly  matters  of  knowledge,  not  of  faith.  It  is 
rather  in  points  of  less  definite  character  that  any  ex- 
ercise of  faith  can  take  place  ;  it  is  rather  with  matters 
of  religious  belief,  belonging  to  a  higher  and  less  con- 
ceivable class  of  truths,  with  the  mysterious  things  of 

the  unseen  world,  that  faith  owns  a  connection,  and 

>J 

*  .  .  ei  yap  TricrTos  et  w?  ftvai  xph  '^<^'  ^CKcls  tov  Xpicrrov  cos 
(fyiKelv  bcl,  ov  xpdav  e'x^'^  ''"'^'^  arj^ieloyr]  •  ravra  yap  dnia-TOLS  8e8oTai. 
—  Horn,  xxiii.  in  Johun.  To  tlic  same  cfl'ect  also  S.  Isidore:  "Tunc  opor- 
teV)at  mundnm  miraciilis  credere,  —  mine  vero  credentem  oportet  bonis 
operibus  coruscare;"  cited  iu  Muss,  iu  defence  of  Wickliff. 


EVIDENCES    OF   CHRISTIANITY.  145 

more  readily  associates  itself  with  spiritual  ideas,  than 
with  external  evidence  or  physical  events :  and  it  is 
generally  admitted,  that  many  points  of  important  re- 
ligious instruction,  even  conveyed  under  the  form  of 
fictions,  —  as  in  the  instances  of  doctrines  inculcated 
through  parables,  —  are  more  congenial  to  the  spirit 
of  faith  than  any  relations  of  historical  events  could 
be. 

The  more  knowledge  advances,  the  more  it  has 
been,  and  will  be,  acknowledged  that  Christianity,  as 
a  real  religion,  must  be  viewed  aj^art  from  connection 
with  physical  things. 

The  first  dissociation  of  the  spiritual  from  the  phys- 
ical was  rendered  necessary  by  the  palpable  contra- 
dictions disclosed  by  astronomical  discovery  with  the 
letter  of  Scripture.  Another  still  wider  and  more 
material  step  has  been  effected  by  the  discoveries 
of  geology.  More  recently,  the  antiquity  of  the  hu- 
man race  and  the  development  of  species,  and  the 
rejection  of  the  idea  of  "  creation,"  have  caused  new 
advances  in  the  same  direction. 

In  all  these  cases,  there  is,  indeed  a  direct  discrep- 
ancy between  what  had  been  taken  for  revealed  truth 
and  certain  undeniable  existing  monuments  to  the 
contrary. 

But  these  monuments  were  interpreted  by  science 
and  reason  ;  and  there  are  other  deductions  of  science 
and  reason  referring  to  alleged  events,  which,  though 
they  have  left  no  monuments  or  permanent  effects 
behind  them,  are  not  the  less  legitimately  subject  to 
the  conclusions  of  positive  science,  and  require  a 
similar  concession  and  recognition  of  the  same  princi- 
ple of  the  independence  of  spiritual  and  of  physical 
truth. 

7  •  J 


146  STUDY   OF   THE 

Thus  far,  our  observations  are  general ;  but,  at  the 
present  moment,  some  recent  publications  on  the  sub- 
ject seem  to  call  for  a  few  more  detailed  remarks.  We 
have  before  observed,  that  the  style  and  character  of 
works  on  "  the  evidences"  has,  of  necessity,  varied  in 
different  ages.  Those  of  Leslie  and  Grotius  have,  by 
common  consent,  been  long  since  superseded  by  that 
of  Paley.  Paley  was  long  the  text-book  at  Cambridge : 
his  work  was  never  so  extensively  popular  at  Oxford  ; 
it  has  of  late  been  entirely  disused  there.  By  the 
public  at  large  however  once  accepted,  we  do  not 
hesitate  to  express  our  belief,  that,  before  another 
quarter  of  a  century  has  elapsed,  it  will  be  laid  on  the 
shelf  with  its  predecessors :  not  that  it  is  a  work  des- 
titute of  high  merit,  —  as  is  pre-eminently  true  also  of 
those  it  superseded,  and  of  others  again  anterior  to 
them,  —  but  they  have  all  followed  the  irreversible 
destiny,  that  a  work,  suited  to  convince  the  public 
mind  at  any  one  particular  period,  must  be  accommo- 
dated to  the  actual  condition  of  knowledge,  of  opinion, 
and  mode  of  thought,  of  that  period.  It  is  not  a  ques- 
tion of  abstract  excellence^  but  of  relative  adaptation. 

Paley  caught  the  prevalent  tone  of  thought  in  his 
day.  Public  opinion  has  now  taken  a  different  turn  ; 
and,  what  is  more  important,  the  style  and  class  of 
difficulties  and  objections  honestly  felt  has  become 
wholly  different.  New  modes  of  speculation  —  new 
forms  of  scepticism  —  have  invaded  the  domain  of  tliat 
settled  belief  which  a  past  age  had  been  accustomed 
to  rest  on  tlie  Palcyan  syllogism.  Yet,  among  several 
works  wliicli  have  of  late  appeared  on  the  subject,  we 
recognize  few  which  at  all  meet  tliese  requirements 
of  existing  opinion.  Of  some  of  the  chief  of  these 
works,  even  appearing  under  the  sanction  of  eminent 


EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  147 

names,  we  are  constrained  to  remark,  that  they  are 
altogether  behhid  the  age  ;  that,  amid  much  learned 
and  acute  remark  on  matters  of  detail,  those  material 
points  on  which  the  modern  difficulties  chiefly  turn, 
as  well  as  the  theories  advanced  to  meet  them,  are,  for 
the  most  part,  not  only  ignored,  and  passed  over  with- 
out examination  or  notice,  but  the  entire  school  of 
those  writers,  who,  with  infinitely  varied  shades  of 
view,  have  dwelt  upon  these  topics,  and  put  forth 
their  attempts  —  feeble  or  powerful,  as  the  case  may 
be  —  to  solve  the  difficulties,  to  improve  the  tone  of 
discussion,  to  reconcile  the  difficulties  of  reason  with 
the  high  aspirations  and  demands  of  faith,  are  all  in- 
discriminately confounded  in  one  common  category  of 
censure  ;  their  views  dismissed  with  ridicule  as  sophis- 
tical and  fallacious,  abused  as  infinitely  dangerous, 
themselves  denounced  as  heretics  and  infidels,  and 
libelled  as  scoffers  and  atheists. 

In  truth,  the 'majority  of  these  champions  of  the 
evidential  logic  betray  an  almost  entire  unconscious- 
ness of  the  advance  of  opinion  around  them.  Having 
their  own  ideas  long  since  cast  in  the  stereotyped 
mould  of  the  past,  they  seem  to  expect  that  a  pro- 
gressing age  ought  still  to  adhere  to  the  same  type, 
and  bow  implicitly  to  a  solemn  and  pompous  but 
childish  parade  and  reiteration  of  the  one-sided  dog- 
mas of  an  obsolete  school,  coupled  with  awful  denun- 
ciations of  heterodoxy  on  all  who  refuse  to  listen  to 
them. 

Paley  clearly,  as  some  of  his  modern  commentators 
do  avowedly  J  occupied  the  position  of  an  advocate,  not 
of  a  judge.  They  professedly  stand  up  on  one  side, 
and  challenge  the  counsel  on  the  other  to  reply. 
Their  object   is,  not   truth,   but   their   client's   case. 


148  STUDY   OF   THE 

The  whole  argument  is  one  of  special  pleading.  We 
may  admire  the  ingenuity  and  confess  the  adroitness 
with  which  favorable  points  are  seized,  unfavorable 
ones  dropped,  evaded,  or  disguised  ;  but  we  do  not 
find  ourselves  the  more  impressed  with  those  high 
and  sacred  convictions  of  truth,  which  ought  to  result 
rather  from  the  wary,  careful,  dispassionate  summing- 
up  on  both  sides,  which  is  the  function  of  the  impar- 
tial and  inflexible  judge. 

The  one  topic  constantly  insisted  on  as  essential  to 
the  grounds  of  belief,  considered  as  based  on  outward 
historical  evidence,  is  that  oi  the  credibility  of  exter- 
nal facts  as  supported  by  testimony.  This  has  always 
formed  the  most  material  point  in  the  reasonings  of 
the  evidential  writers  of  former  times,  hower  imper- 
fectly and  unsatisfactorily  to  existing  modes  of  thought 
they  treated  it ;  and  to  this  point  their  more  recent 
followers  have  still  almost  as  exclusively  directed 
their  attention. 

In  the  representations  which  they  constantly  make, 
we  cannot  but  notice  a  strong  apparent  tendency  and 
desire  to  uphold  the  mere  assertion  of  witnesses  as  the 
supreme  evidence  of  fact^  to  the  utter  disparagement 
of  all  general  grounds  of  reasoning,  analogy,  and  an- 
tecedent credibility,  by  which  that  testimony  may  be 
modified  or  discredited.  Yet  we  remark,  that  all  the 
instances  they  adduce,  when  carefully  examined,  really 
tend  to  the  very  conclusion  they  are  so  anxious  to  set 
aside.  Arguments  of  this  kind  aresometimes  deduced 
from  such  cases  as,  e.  g.^  the  belief  accorded  on  very 
slight  ground  of  probability  in  all  commercial  trans- 
actions dependent  on  the  assumed  credit  and  charac- 
ter of  the  negotiating  parties  ;  from  the  conclusions 
acted   upon    in   life-assurances,   notwithstanding  the 


EVIDENCES    OF   CHEISTIANITY.  149 

proverbial  instability  of  life  ;  and  the  like  :  in  all 
which,  we  can  see  no  other  real  drift  or  tendency 
than  to  substantiate^  instead  of  disparage,  the  necessity 
for  so7ne  deeply  seated  conviction  of  permanent  order 
as  the  basis  of  all  probability. 

A  great  source  of  misapprehension  in  this  class  of 
arguments  has  been  the  undue  confusion  between  the 
force  of  testimony  in  regard  to  human  affairs  and 
events  in  history,  and  in  regard  to  physical  facts.  It 
may  be  true,  that  some  of  the  most  surprising  occur- 
rences in  ordinary  history  are  currently,  and  perhaps 
correctly,  accepted  on  but  slight  grounds  of  real  testi- 
mony ;  but  then  they  relate  to  events  of  a  kind,  which, 
however  singular  in  their  particular  concomitant  cir- 
cumstances, are  not  pretended  to  be  beyond  natural 
causes,  or  to  involve  higher  questions  of  interven- 
tion. 

The  most  seemingly  improbable  events  in  human 
history  may  be  perfectly  credible  on  sufficient  testi- 
mony, however  contradicting  ordinary  experience  of 
human  motives  and  conduct ;  simply  because  we  can- 
not assign  any  limits  to  the  varieties  of  human  dispo- 
sitions, passions,  or  tendencies,  or  the  extent  to  which 
they  may  be  influenced  by  circumstances  of  which, 
perhaps,  we  have  little  or  no  knowledge  to  guide  us. 
But  no  such  cases  would  have  the  remotest  applica- 
bility to  alleged  violations  of  the  laws  of  matter,  or  in- 
terruptions of  the  course  oi physical  causes. 

The  case  of  the  alleged  external  attestations  of 
revelation  is  one  essentially  involving  considerations 
of  physical  evidence.  It  is  not  one  in  which  such 
reflections  and  habits  of  thought  as  arise  out  of  a 
familiarity  with  human  history  and  moral  argument 
will   suffice.      These,   no   doubt,   and   other  kindred 


150  STUDY   OF  THE 

topics,  with  which  the  scholar  and  the  morahst  are 
famihar,  are  of  great  and  fundamental  importance  to 
our  general  views  of  the  whole  subject  of  Christian 
evidence  ;  but  the  particular  case  of  miracles^  as  such, 
is  one  specially  bearing  on  purely  physical  contempla- 
tions, and  on  which  no  general  moral  principles,  no 
common  rules  of  evidence  or  logical  technicalities,  can 
enable  us  to  form  a  correct  judgment.  It  is  not  a 
question  which  can  be  decided  by  a  few  trite  and 
commonplace  generalities  as  to  the  moral  government 
of  the  world  and  the  belief  in  the  Divine  Omnipo- 
tence, or  as  to  the  validity  of  human  testimony  or  the 
limits  of  human  experience.  It  involves,  and  is  essen- 
tially built  upon,  those  grander  conceptions  of  the 
order  of  nature,  those  comprehensive  primary  elements 
of  all  physical  knowledge,  those  ultimate  ideas  of  uni- 
versal causation,  which  can  only  be  familiar  to  those 
thoroughly  versed  in  cosmical  philosophy  in  its  widest 
sense. 

In  an  age  of  physical  research  like  the  present,  all 
highly  cultivated  minds  and  duly  advanced  intellects 
have  imbibed,  more  or  less,  the  lessons  of  the  induc- 
tive philosophy,  and  have,  at  least  in  some  measure, 
learned  to  appreciate  the  grand  foundation  conception 
of  universal  law  ;  to  recognize  the  impossibility  even 
of  any  two  material  atoms  subsisting  together  without 
a  determinate  relation ;  of  any  action  of  the  one  on 
the  other,  whether  of  equilibrium  or  of  motion,  with- 
out reference  to  a  physical  cause  ;  of  any  modifica- 
tion whatsoever  in  the  existing  conditions  of  material 
agents,  unless  through  the  invariable  operation  of  a 
series  of  eternally  impressed  consequences,  following 
in  some  necessary  chain  of  orderly  connection,  how- 
ever imperfectly  known  to  us.     So  clear  and  indispu- 


EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  151 

table,  indeed,  has  this  great  truth  become,  so  deeply 
seated  has  it  been  now  admitted  to  be  in  the  essential 
nature  of  sensible  things  and  of  the  external  world, 
that  not  only  do  all  philosophical  inquirers  adopt  it 
as  a  primary  principle  and  guiding  maxim  of  all  their 
researches,  but,  what  is  most  worthy  of  remark,  minds 
of  a  less  comprehensive  capacity,  accustomed  to  reason 
on  topics  of  another  character,  and  on  more  contracted 
views,  have  at  the  present  day  been  constrained  to 
evince  some  concession  to  this  grand  principle,  even 
when  seemmg  to  oppose  it. 

Among  writers  on  these  questions,  Dean  Trench  has 
evinced  a  higher  view  of  physical  philosophy  than  we 
might  have  expected  from  the  mere  promptings  of 
philology  and  literature,  when  he  affirms  that  "  we 
continually  behold  lower  laws  held  in  restraint  by 
higher,  —  mechanic  by  dynamic,  chemical  by  vital, 
physical  by  moral ;  "  remarks  which,  if  only  followed 
out,  entirely  accord  with  the  conclusion  of  universal 
subordination  of  causation  :  though  we  must  remark, 
in  passing,  that  the  meaning  of  "  moral  laws  control- 
ling physical "  is  not  very  clear. 

It  is  for  the  most  part  hazardous  ground  for  any 
general  moral  reasoner  to  take,  to  discuss  subjects  of 
evidence  which  essentially  involve  that  higher  appre- 
ciation of  physical  truth  which  can  be  attained  only 
from  an  accurate  and  comprehensive  acquaintance 
with  the  connected  series  of  the  physical  and  mathe- 
matical sciences.  Thus,  for  example,  the  simple  but 
grand  truth  of  the  law  of  conservation,  and  the  sta- 
bility of  the  heavenly  motions,  now  well  understood  by 
all  sound  cosmical  philosophers,  is  but  the  type  of 
the  universal  self-sustaming  and  self-evolvmg  powers 
which  pervade  all  nature.     Yet  the  difficulty  of  con- 


152  STUDY   OF   THE 

cciving  this  truth  in  its  simplest  exemplification  was 
formerly  the  chief  hinderance  to  the  acceptance  of 
the  solar  system,  —  from  the  prepossession  of  the  peri- 
patetic dogma,  that  there  must  be  a  constantly  acthig, 
moving  force  to  keep  it  going.  This  very  exploded 
chimera,  however,  by  a  singular  infatuation,  is  now 
actually  revived  as  the  ground  of  argument  for  mirac- 
ulous interposition  by  redoubtable  champions,  who,  to 
evince  their  profound  knowledge  of  mechanical  philos- 
ophy, inform  us  that  "  the  whole  of  nature  is  like  a 
mill,  which  cannot  go  on  without  the  continual  appli- 
cation of  a  moving  power  "  ! 

Of  these  would-be  philosophers  we  find  many  anx- 
iously dwelling  on  the  topic,  so  undeniably  just  in 
itself,  of  the  danger  of  incautious  conclusions  ;  of 
the  gross  errors  into  which  men  fall  by  over-hasty  gen- 
eralizations. They  recount  with  triumph  the  absurd 
mistakes  into  which  some  even  eminent  philosophers 
have  fallen  in  prematurely  denying  what  experience 
has  since  fully  shown  to  be  true,  because  in  the  then 
state  of  knowledge  it  seemed  incredible.*  They  feel 
an  elevating  sense  of  superiority  in  putting  down  the 
arrogance  of  scientific  pretensions,  by  alleging  the 
short-sighted  dogmatism  with  which  men  of  high  re- 
pute in  science  have  evinced  a  scepticism  in  points  of 
vulgar  belief,  in  which,  after  all,  the  vulgar  belief  has 
proved  right.  They  even  make  a  considerable  display 
of  reasoning  on  such  cases  ;  but  we  cannot  say  that 
those  reasonings  are  particularly  distinguished  for 
consistency,  force,  or  originality.  The  philosopher 
(for  example)  denies  the  credibility  of  alleged  events 


*  Numerous  instances  of  the  kind  referred  to  will  be  found  cited  in  Mr. 
R.  Clianibers's  Essay  on  Testimony,  &c.,  Edinburgh  Papers,  1859;  and  in 
Abp.  Whately's  edition  of  Paley's  Evidences. 


EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  153 

professedly  in  their  nature  at  variance  with  all  physical 
analogy.  These  writers,  in  reply,  affect  to  make  a 
solemn  appeal  to  the  bar  of  analogy,  and  support  it 
by  instances  which  precisely  defeat  their  own  conclu- 
sion. Thus  they  advance  the  novel  and  profoundly 
instructive  story  of  an  Indian  who  denied  the  exist- 
ence of  ice  as  at  variance  with  experience ;  and  still 
more  from  the  contradiction,  that,  being  solid,  it  could 
not  float  in  water.  In  like  manner,  they  dwell  upon 
other  equally  interesting  stories  of  a  butterfly,  who, 
from  the  experience  of  his  ephemeral  life  in  summer, 
denied  that  the  leaves  were  ever  brown  or  the  ground 
covered  with  snow ;  of  a  child  who  watched  a  clock 
made  to  strike  only  at  noon,  through  many  hours,  and 
therefore  concluded  it  could  never  strike  ;  of  a  person 
who  had  observed  that  fish  are  organized  to  swim.,  and 
therefore  concluded  there  could  be  no  such  animals  as 
flying  fish. 

These,  with  a  host  of  other  equally  recondite,  novel, 
startling,  and  conclusive  instances,  are  urged  in  a  tone 
of  solemn  wisdom,  to  prove — what?  That  water  is 
converted  into  ice  by  a  regular  known  law ;  that  it 
has  a  specific  gravity  less  than  water  by  so7ne  law  at 
present  but  imperfectly  understood  ;  that,  without  vio- 
lation of  analogy,  fins  may  be  modified  into  wings ; 
that  it  is  part  of  the  great  law  of  climate,  that,  in 
winter,  leaves  are  brown,  and  the  ground  sometimes 
white  ;  that  machinery  may  be  made  with  action  in- 
termitting by  laws  as  regular  as  those  of  its  more 
ordinary  operation  ;  in  a  word,  that  the  philosopher 
who  looks  to  an  endless  subordinating  series  of  laws 
of  succcessively  higher  generality  is  inconsistent  in 
denying  events  at  variance  with  that  subordination  ! 

It  is  indeed  curious  to  notice  the  elaborate  multi- 
7* 


154  STUDY   OF   THE 

plication  of  instances  adduced  by  some  of  the  writers 
referred  to,  all  really  tending  to  prove  the  subordina- 
tion oi  facts  to  laivs,  clearly  evinced  as  soon  as  the 
cases  were  well  understood,  though  till  then,  often 
regarded  in  a  sceptical  spirit ;  while  of  that  scepticism 
they  furnish  the  real  and  true  refutation  in  the  prin- 
ciple of  laio  ultimately  established,  under  whatever 
primary  appearance  and  semblance  of  marvellous  dis- 
cordance from  all  law.  It  would  be  beyond  our  limits 
to  notice  in  detail  such  instances  as  are  thus  dwelt 
upon,  and  apparently  regarded  as  of  sovereign  value 
and  importance,  to  discredit  philosophical  generaliza- 
tion :  such  as  the  disbelief  in  the  marvels  recounted 
by  Marco  Polo  ;  of  the  miracle  of  the  martyrs  who 
spoke  articulately  after  their  tongues  were  cut  out ; 
the  angel  seen  in  the  air  by  two  thousand  persons  at 
Milan ;  the  miraculous  balls  of  fire  on  the  spires  at 
Plausac ;  Herodotus's  story  of  the  bird  in  the  mouth 
of  the  crocodile ;  narratives  of  the  sea-serpent,  mar- 
vels of  mesmerism  and  electro-biology,  —  all  discred- 
ited formerly  as  fables ;  vaccination  observed  and 
attested  by  peasants,  but  denied  and  ridiculed  by 
medical  men. 

These  and  the  like  cases  are  all  urged  as  trium- 
phant proofs  of — what  ?  That  some  men  have  always 
been  found  of  unduly  sceptical  tendencies,  and  some- 
times of  a  rationally  cautious  turn  ;  who  have  heard 
strange,  and  perhaps  exaggerated  narratives,  and  have 
maintained  sometimes  a  wise,  sometimes  an  unwise, 
degree  of  reserve  and  caution  in  admitting  them ; 
though  they  have  since  proved  in  accordance  with 
natural  causes. 

Hallam  and  Rogers  are  cited  as  veritable  witnesses 
to  the  truth  of  certain  effects  of  mesmerism  in  their 


EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  155 

day  generally  disbelieved,  and  for  asserting  which 
they  were  met  with  all  but  an  imputation  of  ''  the 
lie  direct."  They  admitted,  however,  that  their  asser- 
tion was  founded  on  "  experience  so  rare  as  to  be  had 
only  once  in  a  century;"  but  that  experience  has  been 
since  universally  borne  out  by  all  who  have  candidly 
examined  the  question,  and  the  apparantly  isolated 
and  marvellous  cases  have  settled  down  into  examples 
of  broad  and  general  laivs,  now  fully  justified  by  expe- 
rience and  analogy. 

Physiological  evidence  is  adduced  (which  we  will 
suppose  well  substantiated)  to  show  that  the  excision 
of  the  whole  tongue  does  not  take  away  the  power  of 
speech,  though  that  of  the  extremity  does  so :  hence 
the  denial  of  the  story  from  imperfect  experience.  So 
of  other  cases :  the  angel  at  Milan  was  the  aerial  re- 
flection of  an  image  on  a  church  ;  the  balls  of  fire  at 
Plausac  were  electrical ;  the  sea-serpent  was  a  bask- 
ing shark  or  a  stem  of  sea-weed.  A  committee  of  the 
French  Academy  of  Sciences,  with  Lavoisier  at  its 
head,  after  a  grave  investigation,  pronounced  the  al- 
leged fall  of  aerolites  to  be  a  superstitious  fable.  It 
is,  however,  now  substantiated,  not  as  a  miracle,  but 
as  a  well-known  natural  phenomenon.  Instances  of 
undue  philosophical  scepticism  are  unfortunately  com- 
mon ;  but  they  are  the  errors,  not  the  correct  pro- 
cesses, of  inductive  inquiry. 

Granting  all  these  instances,  we  merely  ask.  What 
do  they  prove,  except  the  real  and  paramount  domin- 
ion of  the  rule  of  law  and  order ^  of  universal  subordi- 
nation of  pyhsical  causes^  as  the  sole  principle  and 
criterion  of  proof  and  evidence  in  the  region  of  physi- 
cal and  sensible  truth  ?  and  nowhere  more  emphatically 
than  in  the  history  of  marvels  and  prodigies  do  we 


156  STUDY  OF  THE 

find  a  verification  of  the  truth,  "  Opinioniim  commenta 
delct  dies,  natura3  judicia  confirmat." 

This,  in  fact,  is  the  sole  real  result  of  all  the  pro- 
found parallelisms  and  illustrative  anecdotes  so  con- 
fidently but  unconsciously  adduced  by  these  writers 
with  an  opposite  design. 

"What  is  the  real  conclusion  from  the  far-famed 
"  Historic  Doul:>ts  "  and  the  "  Chronicles  of  Ecnarf," 
but  simply  this,  —  thei'e  is  a  rational  solution^  a  real 
conformity  to  analogy  and  experience^  to  whatever 
extent  a  partially  informed  inquirer  might  be  led  to 
reject  the  recounted  apparent  wonders  on  imperfect 
knowledge  and  from  too  hasty  inference  ?  These 
delightful  parodies  on  Scripture  (if  they  prove  any- 
thing) would  simply  prove  that  the  Bible  narrative 
is  no  more  properly  miraculous  than  the  marvellous 
exploits  of  Napoleon  I.,  or  the  paradoxical  events  of 
recent  history. 

Just  a  similar  scepticism  has  been  evinced  by  nearly 
all  the  first  physiologists  of  the  day,  who  have  joined 
in  rejecting  the  development  theories  of  Lamarck  and 
the  "  Vestiges ; "  and,  while  they  have  strenuously 
maintained  successive  creations,  have  denied  and 
denounced  the  alleged  production  of  organic  life  by 
Messrs.  Crosse  and  Weekes,  and  stoutly  maintained 
the  impossibility  of  spontaneous  generation,  on  the 
alleged  ground  of  contradiction  to  experience.  Yet 
it  is  now  acknowledged  under  the  high  sanction  of 
the  name  of  Owen,*  that  "  creation  "  is  only  another 
name  for  our  ignorance  of  the  mode  of  production ; 
and  it  has  been  the  unanswered  and  unanswerable 
argument  of  another  reasoner,  that  new  species  must 
have  originated  either  out  of  their  inorganic  elements, 

*  Britisli  Association  Address,  1858. 


EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  157 

or  out  of  previously  organized  forms  ;  either  develop- 
ment or  spontaneous  generation  must  he  true  ;  while  a 
work  has  now  appeared  by  a  niituralist  of  the  most 
acknowledged  authority,  —  Mr.  Darwin's  masterly 
volume  on  "  The  Origin  of  Species  "  by  the  law  of 
"  natural  selection,"  —  which  now  substantiates  on 
undeniable  grounds  the  very  principle  so  long  de- 
nounced by  the  first  naturalists, —  the  origination  of 
new  species  by  natural  causes;  a  work  which  must 
soon  bring  about  an  entire  revolution  of  opinion  in 
favor  of  the  grand  principle  of  the  self-evolving  powers 
of  nature. 

By  parity  of  reason,  it  might  just  as  well  be  ob- 
jected to  Archbishop  Whately's  theory  of  civilization, 
we  have  only  for  a  few  centuries  known  anything  of 
savages :  how  then  can  we  pretend  to  infer  that  they 
have  never  civilized  themselves  ?  —  never,  in  all  that 
enormous  length  of  time  which  modern  discovery  has 
now  indisputably  assigned  to  the  existence  of  the 
human  race  !  This  theory,  however,  is  now  intro- 
duced as  a  comment  on  Paley  in  support  of  the  cred- 
ibility of  revelation  ;  and  an  admirable  argument  no 
doubt  it  is,  though  perhaps  many  would  apply  it  in 
a  sense  somewhat  different  from  that  of  the  author. 
If  the  use  of  fire,  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  and  the 
like,  were  divine  revelations,  the  most  obvious  infer- 
ence would  be,  that  so  likewise  are  printing  and 
steam.  If  the  boomerang  was  divinely  communicated 
to  savages  ignorant  of  its  principle,  then  surely  the 
disclosure  of  that  principle  in  our  time  by  the  gyro- 
scope was  equally  so.  But  no  one  denies  revelation 
in  this  sense  :  the  philosophy  of  the  age  does  not  dis- 
credit the  inspiration  of  prophets  and  apostles,  though 
it  may  sometimes  believe  it  in  poets,  legislators,  phi- 


158  STUDY   OF   THE 

losoplicrs,  and  otlicrs  gifted  with  high  genius.  At  all 
events,  the  revelation  of  civilization  does  not  involve 
the  question  of  external  miracles^  which  is  here  the 
sole  point  in  dispute.  The  main  assertion  of  Paley  is, 
that  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  a  revelation  given 
except  by  means  of  miracles.  This  is  his  primary 
axiom  ;  but  this  is  precisely  the  point  which  the  mod- 
ern turn  of  reasoning  most  calls  in  question,  and 
rather  adopts  the  belief  that  a  revelation  is  then  most 
credible,  when  it  appeals  least  to  violations  of  natural 
causes.  Thus,  if  miracles  were,  in  the  estimation  of  a 
former  age,  among  the  chief  supports  of  Christianity, 
they  are  at  present  among  the  main  difficulties,  and 
hinderances  to  its  acceptance. 

One  of  the  first  inductive  philosophers  of  the  age 
(Professor  Faraday)  has  incurred  the  unlimited  dis- 
pleasure of  these  profound  intellcctualists,  because  he 
has  urged  that  the  mere  contracted  experience  of  the 
senses  is  liable  to  deception,  and  that  we  ought  to  be 
guided  in  our  conclusions,  and,  in  fact,  can  only  cor- 
rect the  errors  of  the  senses,  by  a  careful  recurrence 
to  the  consideration  of  natural  laws  and  extended 
analogies.*  In  opposition  to  this  heretical  proposition, 
theyt  set  in  array  the  dictum  of  two  great  author- 
ities of  the  Scottish  school  (Drs.  Abercrombie  and 
Chalmers),  that,  "on  a  certain  amount  of  testimony, 
we  might  believe  any  statement,  however  improba- 
ble ;  "  so  that,  if  a  number  of  respectable  witnesses 
were  to  concur  in  asseverating  that  on  a  certain  occa- 
sion they  had  seen  two  and  two  make  five  we  should 
be  bound  to  believe  them! 


*  Lecture  en  Mental  Education,  1854. 

t  See   Edinburgh  Papers,  "  Testimony,"  &c.,  by  R.  Chambers,  Esq. 
F.  E.  S.  E.,  &c. 


EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  159 

This,  perhaps  it  will  be  said,  is  an  extreme  case. 
Let  us  suppose  another :  if  a  number  of  veracious 
witnesses  were  to  allege  a  real  instance  of  witchcraft 
at  the  present  day,  there  might,  no  doubt,  be  found 
some  infatuated  persons  who  would  believe  it;  but 
the  strongest  of  such  assertions  to  any  educated  man 
would  but  prove,  either  that  the  witnesses  were  cun- 
ningly imposed  upon,  or  the  wizard  himself  deluded. 
If  the  most  numerous  ship's  company  were  all  to 
asseverate  that  they  had  seen  a  mermaid,  would  any 
rational  persons  at  the  present  day  believe  them  ? 
That  they  saw  something  which  they  believed  to  be  a 
mermaid  would  be  easily  conceded.  No  amount  of 
attestation  of  innumerable  and  honest  witnesses  would 
ever  convince  any  one,  versed  in  mathematical  and 
mechanical  science  that  a  person  had  squared  the 
circle  or  discovered  perpetual  motion.  Antecedent 
credibility  depends  on  antecedent  knowledge  and  en- 
larged views  of  the  connection  and  dependence  of 
truths,  and  the  value  of  any  testimony  will  be  modi- 
fied or  destroyed  in  different  degrees  to  minds  differ- 
ently enlightened. 

Testimony,  after  all,  is  but  a  second-hand  assurance  ; 
it  is  but  a  blind  guide  :  testimony  can  avail  nothing 
against  reason.  The  essential  question  of  miracles 
stands  quite  apart  from  any  consideration  of  testi- 
mony :  the  question  would  remain  the  same,  if  we 
had  the  evidence  of  our  own  senses  to  an  alleged 
miracle  ;  that  is,  to  an  extraordinary  or  inexplicable 
fact.  It  is  not  the  mere  fact,  but  the  cause  or  expla- 
nation of  it,  which  is  the  point  at  issue. 

The  case,  indeed,  of  the  antecedent  argument  of 
miracles  is  very  clear,  however  little  some  are  inclined 
to  perceive  it.     In  nature  and  from  nature,  by  science 


IGO  STUDY   OF   THE 

and  by  reason,  we  neither  have,  nor  can  possibly  have, 
any  evidence  of  a  Deity  woi'king-  miracles :  for  that, 
we  must  go  out  of  nature  and  beyond  reason.  If  we 
could  have  any  such  evidence  from  nature^  it  could 
only  prove  extraordinary  natural  effects,  which  would 
not  be  miracles  in  the  old  theological  sense,  as  isolated, 
unrelated,  and  uncaused ;  whereas  no  physical  fact  can 
be  conceived  as  unique,  or  without  analogy  and  rela- 
tion to  others  and  to  the  whole  system  of  natural 
causes. 

To  conclude :  an  alleged  miracle  can  only  be  re- 
garded in  one  of  two  ways,  —  either  (1)  abstractedly 
as  a  physical  event,  and  therefore  to  be  investigated 
by  reason  and  physical  evidence,  and  referred  to  phys- 
ical causes,  possibly  to  known  causes ;  but,  at  all 
events,  to  some  higher  cause  or  law,  if  at  present 
unknown  :  it  then  ceases  to  be  supernatural,  yet  still 
might  be  appealed  to  in  support  of  religious  truth, 
especially  as  referring  to  the  state  of  knowledge  and 
apprehensions  of  the  parties  addressed  in  past  ages. 
Or  (2)  as  connected  with  religious  doctrine,  regarded 
in  a  sacred  light,  asserted  on  the  authority  of  inspira- 
tion. In  this  case,  it  ceases  to  be  capable  of  investiga- 
tion by  reason,  or  to  own  its  dominion.  It  is  accepted 
on  religious  grounds,  and  can  appeal  only  to  the  prin- 
ciple and  influence  of  faith. 

Thus  miraculous  narratives  become  invested  with 
the  character  of  articles  of  faith,  if  they  be  accepted 
in  a  less  positive  and  certain  light,  or  perhaps  as  in- 
volving more  or  less  of  the  parabolic  or  mythic  char- 
acter ;  or,  at  any  rate,  as  received  in  connection  with 
and  for  the  sake  of  the  doctrine  inculcated. 

Some  of  the  most  strenuous  advocates  of  the  Chris- 
tian "  evidences  "  readily  avow,  indeed  expressly  con- 


EVIDENCES   OF   CHEISTIANITY.  161 

tend,  that  the  attestation  of  miracles  is,  after  all,  not 
irresistible  ;  and  that  in  the  very  uncertainty  which 
confessedly  remains  lies  the  "  trial  of  faith,"  *  which 
it  is  thus  implied  must  really  rest  on  some  other  inde- 
pendent moral  conviction. 

In  the  popular  acceptation,  it  is  clear  the  Gospel 
miracles  are  always  objects ^  not  evidences  of  faith  ;  and 
when  they  are  connected  specially  with  doctrines,  as 
in  several  of  the  higher  mysteries  of  the  Christian 
faith,  the  sanctity  which  invests  the  point  of  faith  it- 
self is  extended  to  the  external  narrative  in  which  it 
is  embodied ;  the  reverence  due  to  the  mystery  ren- 
ders the  external  events  sacred  from  examination, 
and  shields  them  also  within  the  pale  of  the  sanc- 
tuary ;  the  miracles  are  merged  in  the  doctrines  with 
which  they  are  connected,  and  associated  with  the 
declarations  of  spiritual  things  which  are,  as  such, 
exempt  from  tliose  criticisms  to  which  physical  state- 
ments would  be  necessarily  amenable. 

But,  even  in  a  reasoning  point  of  view,  those  who 
insist  most  on  the  positive  external  proofs  allow  that 
moral  evidence  is  distinguished  from  demonstrative^ 
not  only  in  that  it  admits  of  degrees^  but  more  espe- 
cially in  that  the  same  moral  argument  is  of  different 
force  to  different  minds :  and  the  advocate  of  Chris- 
tian evidence  triumphs  in  the  acknowledgment,  that 
the  strength  of  Christianity  lies  in  the  variety  of  its 
evidences,  suited  to  all-  varieties  of  apprehension  ;  and 
that,  amid  all  the  diversities  of  conception,  those  who 
cannot  appreciate  some  one  class  of  proofs  will  always 
fmd  some  other  satisfactory,  is  itself  the  crowning 
evidence. 


*  See,  e.g.,  Butler's  Analogy,  part  ii.  chap.  6. 

K 


162  E\aDENCES   OF   CHEISTIANITY. 

With  a  firm  belief  in  constant  supernatural  inter- 
position, the  contemporaries  of  the  apostles  were  as 
much  blinded  to  the  reception  of  the  gospel,  as,  with 
an  opposite  persuasion,  others  have  been  at  a  later 
period.  Those  who  had  access  to  living  divine  in- 
struction were  not  superior  to  the  prepossessions  and 
ignorance  of  their  times.  There  never  existed  an 
"  infallible  age  "  of  exemption  from  doubt  or  preju- 
dice ;  and  if,  to  later  times,  records,  written  in  the 
characters  of  a  long-past  epoch,  are  left  to  be  deci- 
l^hered  by  the  advancing  light  of  learning  and  science, 
the  spirit  of  faith  discovers  continually  increasing  at- 
testation of  the  divine  authority  of  the  truths  they 
include. 

The  "  reason  of  the  hope  that  is  in  us "  is  not 
restricted  to  external  signs,  nor  to  any  one  kind  of 
evidence,  but  consists  of  such  assurance  as  may  be 
most  satisfactory  to  each  earnest  individual  inquirer's 
own  mind :  and  the  true  acceptance  of  the  entire 
revealed  manifestation  of  Christianity  will  be  most 
worthily  and  satisfactorily  based  on  that  assurance  of 
"  faith,"  by  which,  the  apostle  affirms,  "  we  stand  " 
(2  Cor.  ii.  24)  ;  and  which,  in  accordance  with  his 
emphatic  declaration,  must  rest,  "  not  in  the  wisdom 
of  man,  but  in  the  power  of  God"  (1  Cor.  ii.  5). 


SEANCES   HISTORIQUES   DE   GENEVE -THE 
NATIONAL   CHURCH. 


V 

By  henry  BRISTOW  WILSON,  B.D. 


IN  the  city  of  Geneva,  once  the  stronghold  of  the 
severest  creed  of  the  Reformation,  Christianity 
itself  has  of  late  years  received  some  very  rude 
shocks.  But  special  attempts  have  been  recently 
made  to  counteract  their  effects,  and  to  reorganize 
the  Christian  congregations  upon  evangelical  princi- 
ples. In  pursuance  of  this  design,  there  have  been 
delivered  and  published,  during  the  last  few  years,  a 
series  of  addresses  by  distinguished  persons  holding 
evangelical  sentiments,  entitled  "  Seances  Histori- 
ques."  The  attention  of  the  hearers  was  to  be  con- 
ciliated by  the  concrete  form  of  these  discourses  ;  the 
phenomenon  of  the  historical  Christianity  to  be  pre- 
sented as  a  fact  which  could  not  be  ignored,  and 
which  must  be  acknowledged  to  have  had  some  spe- 
cial source  ;  while  from  time  to  time,  as  occasion 
offered,  the  more  peculiar  views  of  the  speakers  were 
to  be  instilled.  But,  before  this  panorama  of  historic 
scenes  had  advanced  beyond  the  period  of  the  fall  of 
Heathenism  in  the  West,  there  had  emerged  a  re- 
markable discrepancy  between  the  views  of  two  of 
the  authors,  otherwise  agreeing  in  the  main. 


164  SEAXCES  HISTORIQUES  DE   GENEVE. 

It  fell  to  the  Comte  Leon  cle  Gasparin  to  illustrate 
the  reign  of  Constantine.     He   laid   it   down  in  the 
strongest  manner,  that  the  individualist  principle  sup- 
plies the  true  basis  of  the  Church  ;  and  that,  by  inaug- 
urating the  union  between  Church  and  State,  Con- 
stantine introduced   into    Christianity   the   false   and 
Pagan    principle    of    Multitudinism.      M.    Bungener 
followed  in  two  lectures  upon  the   age   of  Ambrose 
and  Theodosius.     He   felt  it  necessary,  for  his  own 
satisfaction  and  that  of  others,  to  express  his  dissent 
from  these  opinions.     He   agreed  in  the   portraiture 
drawn,  by  his  predecessor,  of  the  so-called  first  Chris- 
tian emperor,   and   in   his   estimate   of  his   personal 
character.     But  he  maintained  that  the  Multitudinist 
principle   was   not   unlawful   nor  essentially   Pagan ; 
that  it  was  recognized  and  consecrated  in  the  example 
of  the  Jewish  theocracy ;   that  the  greatest  victories 
of  Christianity  have  been  won  by  it ;  that  it  showed 
itself  under  apostolic  sanction   as   early   as   the  day 
of  Pentecost:  for  it  would  be  absurd  to  suppose  the 
three  thousand  who  were  joined  to  the  Church  on  the 
preaching  of  Peter  to  have  been  all  "  converted  "  per- 
sons in  the   modern   evangelical   sense  of  the  word. 
He  especially  pointed  out,  that  the  churches  which 
claim  to   be   founded   upon  Individualism,  fall  back 
themselves,  when  they  become  hereditary,  upon  the 
Multitudinist  principle.     His  brief  but  very  pertinent 
observations  on  that  subject  were  concluded  in  these 
words :  — 


"  Le  multitudinisme  est  une  force  qui  peut,  comme  toute  force, 
ctre  mal  dirlgee,  mal  cxploitee,  mais  qui  peut  aussi  I'ctre  au  profit 
de  la  vcrite,  de  la  plete,  de  la  vie.  Les  Egliscs  fondecs  sur  un 
autre  principe  ont  aide  h  rectifier  celui-lh. ;  c'est  un  dos  ineontes- 
tablcs  services  qu'ellos  ont  rendus,  de  nos  jours,  k  la  cause  de 
I'evangile.     EUes  ont  droit  k  notre  reconnaissance ;  mais  a  Geneve, 


THE  NATIONAL  CHUKCH.  165 

qu'elles  ne  nous  demandent  pas  ce  que  nous  ne  pouvons  faire,  et 
qu'on  me  permette  de  le  dire,  ce  qu'elles  ne  font  pas  elles-memes. 
Oui :  le  nmltitudlnisme  genevois  est  reste  vivant  chez  elles ;  et 
certainement  elles  lui  doivent  une  portion  notable  de  leur  consist- 
ance  au  dedans,  de  leur  influence  au  dehors.  Elles  font  appel, 
comme  nous,  a  ses  souvenirs  et  a  ses  gloires ;  elles  forment,  avec 
nous,  ce  que  le  monde  chretien  appelle,  et  appellera  toujours, 
'  I'Eglise  de  Geneve.'  Nous  ne  la  renions,  au  fond,  pas  plus  les 
uns  que  les  autres.  Elle  a  ete,  elle  est,  elle  restera,  notre  mere  k 
tous."  * 

Such  are  the  feehngs  in  favor  of  Nationahsm  on 
the  part  of  M.  Bnno;ener,  a  member  of  the  Genevan 
Church,  —  a  church  to  which  many  would  not  even 
concede  that  title,  and  of  which  the  ecclesiastical 
renown  centres  upon  one  great  name  ;  while  the  civil 
history  of  the  country  presents  but  little  of  interest 
either  in  ancient  or  modern  times.  But  the  questions 
at  issue  between  these  two  Genevans  are  of  wide 
Christian  concern,  and  especially  to  ourselves.  If  the 
Genevans  cannot  be  proud  of  their  Calvin,  as  they 
cannot  in  all  things,  —  and  even  he  is  not  truly  their 
own,  —  they  have  little  else  of  which  to  speak  before 
Christendom.  Yery  different  are  the  recollections 
which  are  awakened  by  the  past  history  of  such  a 
Church  as  ours.  Its  roots  are  found  to  penetrate 
deep  into  the  history  of  the  most  freely  and  fully  de- 
veloped nationality  in  the  world,  and  its  firm  hold 
upon  the  past  is  one  of  its  best  auguries  for  the  future. 
It  has  lived  through  Saxon  rudeness,  Norman  rapine, 
baronial  oppression  and  bloodshed  ;  it  has  survived 
the  tyranny  of  Tudors,  recovered  from  fanatical  as- 
saults, escaped  the  treachery  of  Stuarts  ;  has  not  per- 
ished under  coldness,  nor  been  stifled  with  patronage, 
nor   sunk   utterly  in   a  dull  age,  nor  been  entirely 


*  stances  Historiques  de  Geneve  —  Le  Christianisme  au  4ieme  Siecle, 
p.  153. 


166  SEANCES  HISTORIQUES  DE   GENEVE. 

depraved  in  a  corrupt  one.  Neither  as  a  spiritual 
society,  nor  as  a  national  institution,  need  there  be  any 
fear  that  the  Church  of  this  country,  which  has  passed 
through  so  many  ordeals,  shall  succumb  because  we 
may  be  on  the  verge  of  some  political  and  ecclesias- 
tical changes.  We  ourselves  cohere  with  those  who 
have  preceded  us,  under  very  different  forms  of  civil 
constitution,  and  under  a  very  different  creed,  and 
externals  of  worship.  The  "rude  forefathers,"  whose 
mouldering  bones,  layer  upon  layer,  have  raised  tlie 
soil  round  the  foundations  of  our  old  churches,  adored 
the  Host,  worshipped  the  Virgin,  signed  themselves 
with  the  sign  of  the  cross,  sprinkled  themselves  with 
holy  water,  and  paid  money  for  masses  for  the  relief 
of  souls  in  purgatory.  But  it  is  no  reason,  because 
we  trust  that  spiritually  we  are  at  one  with  the  best  of 
those  who  have  gone  before  us  in  better  things  than 
these,  that  we  should  revert  to  their  old-world  prac- 
tices ;  nor  should  we  content  ourselves  with  simply 
transmitting  to  those  who  shall  follow  us  traditions 
which  have  descended  to  ourselves,  if  we  can  trans- 
mit something  better.  There  is  a  time  for  building 
np  old  waste  places,  and  a  time  for  raising  fresh 
structures  ;  a  time  for  repairing  the  ancient  paths, 
and  a  time  for  filling  the  valleys  and  loweruig  the 
liills  in  the  constructing  of  new.  The  Jews,  contem- 
poraries of  Jesus  and  his  apostles,  were  fighters 
against  God  in  refusing  to  accept  a  new  application 
of  things  written  in  the  Law,  the  Prophets,  and  the 
Psalms  ;  the  Romans  in  the  time  of  Theodosius  were 
fighters  against  him,  when  they  resisted  the  new 
religion  with  an  appeal  to  old  customs ;  so  were  the 
opponents  of  Wycliffe  and  his  English  Bible,  and  the 
opponents  of  Cranmer  and  his  Reformation.     Meddle 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  167 

not  with  tliem  that  are  given  to  change  is  a  warning 
for  some  times,  and  self-willed  persons  may  "  bring  in 
damnable  heresies  : "  at  others,  "  old  things  are  to  pass 
away ; "  and  that  is  erroneously  "  called  heresy  "  by 
the  blind  which  is  really  a  worshipping  the  God  of 
the  fathers  in  a  better  way. 

When  signs  of  the  times  are  beheld  foretelling 
change,  it  behooves  those  who  think  they  perceive 
them  to  indicate  them  to  others,  not  in  any  spirit  of 
presumption  or  of  haste  ;  and,  in  no  spirit  of  presump- 
tion, to  suggest  inquiries  as  to  the  best  method  of 
adjusting  old  things  to  new  conditions. 

Many  evils  are  seen  in  various  ages,  if  not  to  have 
issued  directly,  to  have  been  intimately  linked  with 
the  Christian  profession ;  such  as  religious  wars,  per- 
secutions, delusions,  impositions,  spiritual  tyrannies. 
Many  goods  of  civilization  in  our  own  day,  when  men 
have  run  to  and  fro  and  knowledge  has  been  increased, 
have  apparently  not  the  remotest  connection  with  the 
gospel.  Hence  grave  doubts  arise  in  the  minds  of 
really  well-meaning  persons,  whether  the  secular  fu- 
ture of  humanity  is  necessarily  bound  up  with  the 
diffusion  of  Christianity  ;  whether  the  Church  is  to  be 
hereafter  the  life-giver  to  human  society.  It  would 
be  idle  on  the  part  of  religious  advocates  to  treat 
anxieties  of  this  kind  as  if  they  were  forms  of  the 
old  Voltairian  anti-Christianism.  They  are  not  those 
affectations  of  difficulties  whereby  vice  endeavors  to 
lull  asleep  its  fears  of  a  judgment  to  come ;  nor 
are  they  the  pretensions  of  ignorant  and  presump- 
tuous spirits,  making  themselves  wise  beyond  the 
limits  of  man's  wisdom.  Even  if  such  were,  indeed, 
the  sources  of  the  wide-spread  doubts  respecting  tra- 
ditional Christianity  which  prevail  in  our  own  day, 


168  SEANCES   HISTORIQUES   DE   GENEVE. 

it  would  be  very  injudicious  polemic  which  should 
content  itself  with  denouncing  the  wickedness,  or  ex- 
pressing pity  for  the  blindness,  of  those  who  entertain 
them.  An  imputation  of  evil  motives  may  imbitter 
an  opponent  and  add  gall  to  controversy,  but  can 
never  dispense  with  the  necessity  for  replying  to  his 
arguments,  nor  with  the  advisableness  of  neutralizing 
his  objections. 

If  anxieties  respecting  the  future  of  Christianity, 
and  the  office  of  the  Christian  Church  in  time  to 
come,  were  confined  to  a  few  students  or  speculative 
philosophers,  they  might  be  put  aside  as  mere  theo- 
retical questions.  If  rude  criticisms  upon  the  Scrip- 
tures, of  the  Tom-Paine  kind,  proceeding  from  agitators 
of  the  masses,  or  from  uninstructed  persons,  were  the 
only  assaults  to  which  the  letter  of  the  Bible  was  ex- 
posed, it  might  be  thought  that  further  instruction 
would  impart  a  more  reverential  and  submissive  spir- 
it. If  lay-people  only  entertained  objections  to  estab- 
lished formularies  in  some  of  their  parts,  a  self-satisfied 
sacerdotalism,  confident  in  a  supernaturally  transmitted 
illumination,  might  succeed  in  keeping  peace  within 
the  walls  of  emptied  churches.  It  may  not  be  very 
easy,  by  a  statistical  proof,  to  convince  those,  whose 
preconceptions  indispose  them  to  admit  it,  of  the  fact 
of  a  very  wide-spread  alienation,  both  of  educated 
and  uneducated  persons,  from  the  Christianity  which 
is  ordinarily  presented  in  our  churches  and  chapels. 
Whether  it  be  their  reason  or  their  moral  sense  which 
is  shocked  by  what  they  hear  there,  the  ordinances  of 
public  worship  and  religious  instruction  provided  for 
the  people  of  England,  alike  in  the  endowed  and  un- 
endowed churches,  are  not  used  by  them  to  the  extent 
we  should  expect,  if  they  valued  them  very  highly, 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  169 

or  if  they  were  really  adapted  to  the  wants  of  their 
nature  as  it  is.  And  it  has  certainly  not  hitherto  re- 
ceived the  attention  which  such  a  grave  circumstance 
demanded,  that  a  number  equal  to  five  millions  and 
a  quarter  of  persons  should  have  neglected  to  attend 
means  of  public  worship  within  their  reach  on  the  cen- 
sus Sunday  in  1851  ;  these  five  millions  and  a  quarter 
being  forty-two  per  cent  of  the  whole  number  able 
and  with  opportunity  of  then  attending.  As  an  indi- 
cation, on  the  other  hand,  of  a  great  extent  of  dissat- 
isfaction on  the  part  of  the  clergy  to  some  portion, 
at  least,  of  the  formularies  of  the  Church  of  England, 
may  be  taken  the  fact,  of  the  existence  of  various  as- 
sociations to  procure  their  revision,  or  some  liberty 
in  their  use,  especially  that  of  omitting  one  unhappy 
creed. 

It  is  generally  the  custom  of  those  who  wish  to 
ignore  the  necessity  for  grappling  with  modern  ques- 
tions concerning  biblical  interpretation,  the  construc- 
tion of  the  Christian  Creed,  the  position  and  prospects 
of  the  Christian  Church,  to  represent  the  disposition 
to  entertain  them  as  a  disease  contracted  by  means 
of  German  inocu.lation.  At  other  times,  indeed,  the 
tables  are  turned,  and  theological  inquirers  are  to  be 
silenced  with  the  reminder,  that,  in  the  native  land  of 
the  modern  scepticism,  Evangelical  and  High-Lutheran 
reactions  have  already  put  it  down.  It  may  be  that 
on  these  subjects  we  shall  in  England  be  much  in- 
debted, for  some  time  to  come,  to  the  patience  of 
German  investigators  ;  but  we  are  by  no  means  likely 
to  be  mystified  by  their  philosophical  speculations,  nor 
to  be  carried  away  by  an  inclination  to  force  all  facts 
within  the  sweep  of  some  preconceived  comprehen- 
sive theory.  If  the  German  biblical  critics  have 
8* 


170  SEANCES   HISTORIQUES   DE    GENEVE. 

gathered  together  much  evidence,  the  verdict  will 
have  to  be  pronounced  by  the  sober  English  judg- 
ment. But,  in  fact,  the  influence  of  this  foreign 
literature  extends  to  comparatively  few  among  us, 
and  is  altogether  insufficient  to  account  for  the  wide 
spread  of  that  wdiich  has  been  called  the  negative 
theology.  This  is  rather  owing  to  a  spontaneous 
recoil,  on  the  part  of  large  numbers  of  the  more 
acute  of  our  population,  from  some  of  the  doctrines 
which  are  to  be  heard  at  church  and  chapel ;  to  a 
distrust  of  the  old  arguments  for,  or  proofs  of,  a 
miraculous  revelation ;  and  to  a  misgiving  as  to  the 
authority,  or  extent  of  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures. 
In  the  presence  of  real  difficulties  of  this  kind,  proba- 
bly of  genuine  English  growth,  it  is  vain  to  seek  to 
check  that  open  discussion  out  of  which  alone  any  sat- 
isfactory settlement  of  them  can  issue. 

There  may  be  a  certain  amount  of  literature  circu- 
lating among  us  in  a  cheap  form,  of  which  the  purpose, 
with  reference  to  Christianity,  is  simply  negative  and 
destructive,  and  which  is  characterized  by  an  absence 
of  all  reverence,  not  only  for  beliefs,  but  for  the  best 
human  feelings  which  have  gathered  round  them, 
even  when  they  have  been  false  or  superstitious. 
But  if  those  who  are  old  enougli  to  do  so  would  com- 
pare the  tone  generally  of  the  sceptical  publications 
of  the  present  day  with  that  of  the  papers  of  Hone 
and  others  about  forty  years  ago,  they  would  be  re- 
minded that  assaults  were  made  then  upon  the 
Christian  religion  in  far  grosser  form  than  now,  and 
long  before  opinion  could  have  been  inoculated  by 
German  philosophy,  —  long  before  the  more  celebrated 
criticisms  upon  the  details  of  the  evangelical  histories 
had  appeared.     But  it  was  attacked  then  as  an  insti- 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  171 

tution,  or  by  reason  of  tlio  unpopularity  of  institutions 
and  methods  of  government  connected,  or  supposed 
to  be  connected,  with  it.  The  anti-Christian  agitation 
of  that  day  in  Enghind  was  a  phase  of  radicahsm, 
and  of  a  radicahsm  which  was  a  terrific  and  uprooting 
force,  of  which  the  counterpart  can  scarcely  be  said 
to  exist  among  us  now. 

The  sceptical  movements  in  this  generation  are  the 
result  of  observation  and  thought,  not  of  passion. 
Things  come  to  the  knowledge  of  almost  all  persons, 
which  were  unknown  a  generation  ago,  even  to  the 
well-informed.  Thus  the  popular  knowledge,  at  that 
time,  of  the  surface  of  the  earth,  and  of  the  populations 
which  cover  it  was  extremely  incomplete.  In  our 
own  boyhood,  the  world,  as  known  to  the  ancients,  was 
nearly  all  which  was  known  to  ourselves.  We  have 
recently  become  acquainted,  intimate,  with  the  teem- 
ing regions  of  the  Far  East ;  and  with  empires.  Pa- 
gan or  even  Atheistic,  of  which  the  origin  runs  far 
back  beyond  the  historic  records  of  Judaea  or  of  the 
West,  and  which  were  more  populous  than  all  Chris- 
tendom now  is  for  many  ages  before  the  Christian  era. 
Not  any  book-learning,  not  any  proud  exaltation  of 
reason,  not  any  dreamy  German  metaphysics,  not  any 
minute  and  captious  biblical  criticism,  suggest  ques- 
tions to  those  who  on  Sundays  hear  the  reading  and 
exposition  of  the  Scriptures  as  they  were  expounded 
to  our  forefathers,  and  on  Monday  peruse  the  news  of 
a  world  of  which  our  forefathers  little  dreamed, — 
descriptions  of  great  nations,  in  some  senses  barbar- 
ous compared  with  ourselves,  but  composed  of  men 
of  flesh  and  blood  like  our  own  ;  of  like  passions ; 
marrying  and  domestic  ;  congregating  in  great  cities  ; 
buying  and  selling,  and  getting  gain ;  agriculturists, 


172  SEANCES  HISTORIQUES  DE   GENEVE. 

merchants,  manufacturers  ;  making  wars,  establishing 
dynasties  ;  falling  down  before  objects  of  worship, 
constituting  priesthoods,  binding  themselves  by  oaths, 
honoring  the  dead.  In  what  relation  does  the  gospel 
stand  to  these  millions  ?  Is  there  any  trace  on  the 
face  of  its  records,  that  it  even  contemplated  their 
existence  ?  We  are  told,  that  to  know  and  believe  in 
Jesus  Christ,  is,  in  some  sense  necessary  to  salvation. 
It  has  not  been  given  to  these.  Are  they,  will  they 
be  hereafter,  the  worse  off  for  their  ignorance  ?  As 
to  abstruse  points  of  doctrine  concerning  the  Divine 
Nature  itself,  those  subjects  may  be  thought  to  lie 
beyond  the  range  of  our  faculties.  If  one  says  "  Ay," 
no  other  is  entitled  to  say  "  No  "  to  his  "  Ay  :  "  if  one 
says  "  No,"  no  one  is  entitled  to  say  "  Ay  "  to  his  "  No." 
Besides,  the  best  approximative  illustrations  of  those 
doctrines  must  be  sought  in  metaphysical  conceptions 
of  which  few  are  capable  ;  and  in  the  history  of  old 
controversies  with  which  fewer  still  are  acquainted. 
But,  with  respect  to  the  moral  treatment  of  his  crea- 
tures by  Almighty  God,  all  men,  in  different  degrees, 
are  able  to  be  judges  of  the  representations  made  of  it, 
by  reason  of  the  moral  sense  which  he  has  given  them. 
As  to  the  necessity  of  faith  in  a  Saviour  to  these 
peoples,  when  they  could  never  have  had  it,  no  one, 
upon  reflection,  can  believe  in  any  such  thing :  doubt- 
less they  will  be  equitably  dealt  with.  And,  when  we 
hear  fine  distinctions  drawn  between  covenanted  and 
uncovcnanted  mercies,  it  seems  either  to  be  a  distinc- 
tion without  a  difference,  or  to  amount  to  a  denial  of 
the  broad  and  equal  justice  of  the  Supreme  Being. 
We  cannot  be  content  to  wrap  this  question  up,  and 
leave  it  for  a  mystery,  as  to  what  shall  become  of  those 
myriads  upon  myriads  of  non-Christian  races.     First. 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  173 

if  our  traditions  tell  us  that  tliey  are  involved  in  the 
curse  and  perdition  of  Adam,  and  may  justly  be  pun- 
ished hereafter,  individually,  for  his  transgression,  — 
not  having  been  extricated  from  it  by  saving  faith, 
—  we  are  disposed  to  think  that  our  traditions  cannot 
herein  fairly  declare  to  us  the  words  and  inferences 
from  Scripture :  but  if,  on  examination,  it  should  turn 
out  that  they  have,  we  must  say  that  the  authors  of 
the  Scriptural  books  have  in  those  matters  represented 
to  us  their  own  inadequate  conceptions,  and  not  the 
mind  of  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  for  we  must  conclude  with 
the  apostle,  "  Yea,  let  God  be  true,  and  every  man  a 
liar." 

If,  indeed,  we  are  at  liberty  to  believe  that  all  shall 
be  equitably  dealt  with  according  to  their  opportuni- 
ties, whether  they  have  heard  or  not  of  the  name  of 
Jesus,  then  we  can  acknowledge  the  case  of  the 
Christian  and  non-Christian  populations  to  be  one  of 
difference  of  advantages ;  and,  of  course,  no  account 
can  be  given  of  the  principle  which  determines  the 
unequal  distribution  of  the  divine  benefits.  The  ex- 
hibition of  the  divine  attributes  is  not  to  be  brought 
to  measure  of  numbers  or  proportions  ;  but  human 
statements  concerning  the  dealings  of  God  with  man- 
kind, hypotheses  and  arguments  abovit  them,  may 
very  usefully  be  so  tested.  Truly,  the  abstract  or 
philosophical  difficulty  may  be  as  great  concerning  a 
small  number  of  persons  unprovided  for,  or,  as  might 
be  inferred  from  some  doctrinal  statements,  not  equi- 
tably dealt  with,  in  the  divine  dispensations,  as  con- 
cerning a  large  one  ;  but  it  does  not  so  force  itself  on 
the  imagination  and  heart  of  the  generality  of  observ- 
ers. The  difficulty,  though  not  new  in  itself,  is  new 
as  to  the  great  increase  in  the  numbers  of  those  who 


174  SEANCES  HISTORIQUES  DE   GENEVE. 

feel  it,  and  in  the  practical  urgency  for  discovering 
an  answer,  solution,  or  neutralization  for  it,  if  we 
would  set  many  unquiet  souls  at  rest. 

From  the  same  source  of  the  advance  of  general 
knowledge  respecting  the  inhabitancy  of  the  world 
issues  another  inquiry  concerning  a  promise,  prophe- 
cy, or  assertion  of  Scripture.  For  the  commission  of 
Jesus  to  his  apostles  was  to  preach  the  gospel  to  "  all 
nations,"  "  to  every  creature  ;  "  and  St.  Paul  says  of 
the  Gentile  world,  "  But  I  say,  have  they  not  heard  ? 
Yes,  verily,  their  sound  went  into  all  the  earth,  and 
their  words  unto  the  ends  of  the  world  "  (Rom.  x.  18)  ; 
and  speaks  of  the  gospel  "  which  was  preached  to 
every  nation  under  heaven  "  (Col.  i.  23),  when  it  has 
never  yet  been  preached  even  to  the  half.  Then, 
again,  it  has  often  been  appealed  to  as  an  evidence 
of  the  supernatural  origin  of  Christianity,  and  as  an 
instance  of  supernatural  assistance  vouchsafed  to  it 
in  the  first  centuries,  that  it  so  soon  overspread  the 
world.  It  has  seemed  but  a  small  leap  of  about  three 
hundred  years  to  the  age  of  Constantine,  if  in  that 
time,  not  to  insist  upon  the  letter  of  the  texts  already 
quoted,  the  conversion  of  the  civilized  world  could  be 
accomplished.  It  may  be  known  only  to  the  more 
learned,  that  it  was  not  accomplished  Avith  respect  to 
the  Eoman  Empire  even  then  ;  that  the  Christians  of 
the  East  cannot  be  fairly  computed  at  more  than  half 
the  population,  nor  the  Christians  of  the  West  at  so 
much  as  a  third,  at  the  commencement  of  that  emper- 
or's reign.  But  it  requires  no  learning  to  be  aware 
that  neither  tlien  nor  subsequently  have  the  Christians 
amounted  to  more  than  a  fourth  part  of  the  people  of 
the  earth ;  and  it  is  seen  to  be  impossible  to  appeal 
any  longer  to  the  wonderful  spread  of  Christianity  in 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  175 

the  three  first  centuries  as  a  special  evidence  of  the 
wisdom  and  goodness  of  God. 

So  Hkewise  a  very  grave  modification  of  an  "  evi- 
dence "  heretofore  current  must  ensue  in  another 
respect,  in  consequence  of  an  increased  knowledge 
of  other  facts  connected  with  the  foregoing.  It  has 
been  customary  to  argue,  that,  a  priori ,  a  supernatural 
revelation  was  to  be  expected  at  the  time  when  Jesus 
Christ  was  manifested  upon  the  earth,  by  reason  of 
the  exhaustion  of  all  natviral  or  unassisted  human 
efforts  for  the  amelioration  of  mankind.  The  state  of 
the  world,  it  has  been  customary  to  say,  had  become 
so  utterly  corrupt  and  hopeless  under  the  Roman 
sway,  that  a  necessity  and  special  occasion  was  pre- 
sented for  an  express  divine  intervention.  Our  re- 
cently enlarged  ethnographical  information  shows  such 
an  argument  to  be  altogether  inapplicable  to  the  case. 
If  we  could  be  judges  of  the  necessity  for  a  special 
divine  intervention,  the  stronger  necessity  existed  in 
the  East.  There  immense  populations,  like  the  Chi- 
nese, had  never  developed  the  idea  of  a  personal  God, 
or  had  degenerated  from  a  once  pure  theological  creed, 
as  in  India,  from  the  religion  of  the  Vedas.  Oppres- 
sions and  tyrannies,  caste-distinctions,  common  and 
enormous  vices,  a  polluted  idolatrous  worship,  as  bad 
as  the  worst  which  disgraced  Rome,  Greece,  or  Syria, 
had  prevailed  for  ages. 

It  would  not  be  very  tasteful,  as  an  exception  to 
this  description,  to  call  Buddhism  the  gospel  of  India, 
preached  to  it  five  or  six  centuries  before  the  gospel 
of  Jesus  was  proclaimed  in  the  nearer  East ;  but,  on 
the  whole,  it  would  be  more  like  the  realities  of  things, 
as  we  can  now  behold  them,  to  say  that  the  Christian 
revelation  was  given  to  the  Western  world  because  it 


176  SEANCES  HISTORIQUES  DE   GENEVE. 

deserved  it  better  and  was  more  prepared  for  it  than 
the  East.  Philosophers,  at  least,  had  anticipated  in 
speculation  some  of  its  dearest  hopes,  and  had  pre- 
pared the  way  for  its  self-denying  ethics. 

There  are  many  other  sources  of  the  modern  ques- 
tionings of  traditional  Christianity,  which  cannot  now 
be  touched  upon,  originating,  like  those  which  have 
been  mentioned,  in  a  change  of  circumstances  where- 
in observers  are  placed  ;  whereby  their  thoughts  are 
turned  in  new  directions,  and  they  are  rendered  dis- 
satisfied with  old  modes  of  speaking.  But  such  a 
difficulty  as  that  respecting  the  souls  of  Heathendom, 
which  must  now  come  closely  home  to  multitudes 
among  us,  will  disappear,  if  it  be  candidly  acknowl- 
edged that  the  words  of  the  New  Testament,  which 
speak  of  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  to  the  whole 
world,  were  limited  to  the  understanding  of  the  times 
when  they  were  spoken ;  that  doctrines  concerning 
salvation,  to  be  met  with  in  it,  are,  for  the  most  part, 
applicable  only  to  those  to  whom  the  preaching  of 
Christ  should  come  ;  and  that  we  must  draw  our  con- 
clusions respecting  a  just  dealing  hereafter  with  the 
individuals  who  make  up  the  sum  of  Heathenism, 
rather  from  reflections  suggested  by  our  own  moral 
instincts  than  from  the  express  declarations  of  Scrip- 
ture writers,  who  had  no  such  knowledge  as  is  given 
to  ourselves  of  the  amplitude  of  the  world  which  is 
the  scene  of  the  divine  manifestations. 

Moreover,  to  our  great  comfort,  there  have  been 
preserved  to  us  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus  himself,  de- 
claring that  the  conditions  of  men  in  another  world 
will  be  determined  by  their  moral  characters  in  this, 
and  not  by  their  hereditary  or  traditional  creeds  ;  and 
both  many  words  and  the  practice  of  the  great  Apostle 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  177 

Paul,  witliin  the  range  which  was  given  him,  tend  to 
the  same  result.  He  has  been  thought  even  to  make 
an  allusion  to  the  Buddhist  Dharmma,  or  law,  when 
he  said,  "  When  the  Gentiles,  which  have  not  the  law, 
do  by  nature  the  things  contained  in  the  law,  these 
having  not  the  law,  are  a  law  unto  themselves,  which 
show  the  work  of  the  law  written  in  their  hearts,"  <fcc. 
(Rom.  ii.  14,  15).  However  this  may  be,  it  is  evident, 
that,  if  such  a  solution  as  the  above  is  accepted,  a 
variety  of  doctrinal  statements  hitherto  usual  —  Cal- 
vinistic  and  Lutheran  theories  on  the  one  hand,  and 
sacramental  and  hierarchical  ones  on  the  other  — 
must  be  thrown  into  the  background,  if  not  aban- 
doned. 

There  may  be  a  long  future  during  which  the 
present  course  of  the  world  shall  last.  Instead  of  its 
drawing  near  the  close  of  its  existence,  as  repre- 
sented in  Millenarian  or  Rabbinical  fables,  and  with 
so  many  more  souls,  according  to  some  interpretations 
of  the  gospel  of  salvation,  lost  to  Satan  in  every  age 
and  in  every  nation  than  have  been  won  to  Christ, 
that  the  victory  would  evidently  be  on  the  side  of  the 
Fiend,  we  may  yet  be  only  at  the  commencement  of 
the  career  of  the  great  Spiritual  Conqueror  even  in 
this  world.  Nor  have  we  any  right  to  say  that  the 
effects  of  what  He  does  upon  earth  shall  not  extend 
and  propagate  themselves  in  worlds  to  come.  But, 
under  any  expectation  of  the  duration  of  the  present 
secular  constitution,  it  is  of  the  deepest  interest  to  us, 
both  as  observers  and  as  agents,  placed  evidently  at 
an  epoch  when  humanity  finds  itself  under  new  condi- 
tions, to  form  some  definite  conception  to  ourselves  of 
the  way  in  which  Christianity  is  henceforward  to  act 
upon  the  world  which  is  our  own. 

8*  L 


178  SEANCES   IIISTORIQUES   DE   GENEVE. 

Different  estimates  are  made  of  the  beneficial  effects 
already  wrought  by  Christianity  upon  the  secular  as- 
pect of  the  world,  according  to  the  different  points  of 
view  from  which  it  is  regarded.  Some  endeavor, 
from  an  impartial  standing-point,  to  embrace  in  one 
panorama  the  whole  religious  history  of  mankind,  of 
which  Christianity  then  becomes  the  most  important 
phase  ;  others  can  only  look  at  such  a  history  from 
within  some  narrow  chamber  of  doctrinal  and  eccle- 
siastical prepossessions.  And  anticipations  equally 
different  for  like  reasons  will  be  entertained  by  per- 
sons differently  imbued,  as  to  the  form  under  which, 
and  the  machinery  by  which,  it  shall  hereafter  be 
presented  with  success,  either  to  the  practically  un- 
christianized  populations  of  countries  like  our  own, 
or  to  peoples  of  other  countries  never  as  yet  even 
nominally  Christianized. 

Although  the  consequences  of  what  the  gospel  does 
will  be  carried  on  into  other  worlds,  its  work  is  to  be 
done  here.  Although  some  of  its  work  here  must  be 
imseen,  yet  not  all ;  nor  much  even  of  its  unseen  work, 
without  at  least  some  visible  manifestation  and  effects. 
The  invisible  Church  is  to  us  a  mere  abstraction.  Now, 
it  is  acknowledged  on  all  hands,  that  to  the  Multitu- 
dinist  principle  are  due  the  great  external  victories 
which  the  Christian  name  has  hitherto  won.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  alleged  by  the  advocates  of  Indi- 
vidualism, that  these  outward  acquisitions  and  numer- 
ical accessions  have  always  been  made  at  the  expense 
of  the  purity  of  the  Church,  and  also  that  Scriptural 
authority  and  the  earliest  practice  is  in  favor  of  Indi- 
vidualism. Moreover,  almost  all  the  corruptions  of 
Christianity  are  attributed  by  Individualists  to  the 
effecting  by  the  Emperor  Constantine  of  an  unholy 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  179 

alliance  between  Church  and  State.  Yet  a  fair  review, 
as  far  as  there  are  data  for  it,  of  the  state  of  Chris- 
tianity before  the  time  of  that  emperor,  will  leave  us 
in  at  least  very  great  doubt  whether  the  Christian 
character  was  really,  in  the  anterior  period,  superior 
on  the  average  to  what  it  has  subsequently  been.  We 
may  appeal  to  the  most  ancient  records  extant,  and 
even  to  the  Apostolic  Epistles  themselves,  to  show 
that  neither  in  doctrine  nor  in  morals  did  the  prim- 
itive Christian  communities  at  all  approach  to  the 
ideal  which  has  been  formed  of  them.  The  moral 
defects  of  the  earliest  converts  are  the  subject  of  the 
gravest  expostulation  on  the  part  of  the  apostolic 
writers  ;  and  the  doctrinal  features  of  the  early 
Church  are  much  more  undetermined  than  would  be 
thought  by  those  who  read  them  only  through  the 
ecclesiastical  creeds. 

Those  who  belong  to  very  different  theological 
schools  acknowledge  at  times  that  they  cannot  with 
any  certainty  find  in  the  highest  ecclesiastical  anti- 
quity the  dogmas  which  they  consider  most  important. 
It  is  customary  with  Lutherans  to  represent  their  doc- 
trine of  justification  by  subjective  faith  as  having  died 
out  shortly  after  the  apostolic  age.  In  fact,  it  never 
was  the  doctrine  of  any  considerable  portion  of  the 
Church  till  the  time  of  the  Reformation.  It  is  not 
met  with  in  the  immediately  post-apostolic  writings, 
nor  in  the  apostolic  writings,  except  those  of  St.  Paul ; 
not  even  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  which  is  of 
the  Pauline  or  Paulo- Johannean  school.  The  faith  at 
least  of  that  epistle,  "  the  substance  of  things  hoped 
for,"  is  a  very  different  faith  from  the  faith  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  if  the  Lutherans  are  correct  in 
representing  that  to  be  a  conscious  apprehending  of 


180  SEANCES  HISTORIQUES   DE   GENEVE. 

the  benefits,  to  the  individual  soul,  of  the  Saviour's 
merits  and  passion.  Then,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is 
admitted,  even  maintained,  by  a  very  different  body  of 
theologians,  —  as  by  the  learned  Jesuit  Petavius  and 
many  others,  —  that  the  doctrine  afterwards  developed 
into  the  Xicene  and  Athanasian  is  not  to  be  found  ex- 
plicitly in  the  earliest  Fathers,  nor  even  in  Scripture, 
although  provable  by  it.  One  polemical  value  of  this 
view,  to  those  who  uphold  it,  is  to  show  the  necessity 
of  an  inspired  Church  to  develop  catholic  truth. 

But,  although  the  primitive  Christians  fell  far  short 
both  of  a  doctrinal  and  ethical  ideal,  there  is  this  re- 
markable distinction  to  be  noted  between  the  primitive 
aspects  of  doctrine  and  of  ethics.  The  morals  of  the 
first  Christians  were  certainly  very  far  below  the  esti- 
mate which  has  been  formed  of  them ;  but  the  stand- 
ard by  which  they  were  measured  was  unvarying, 
lofty,  and  peculiar.  Moreover,  the  nearer  we  approach 
to  the  fountain-head,  the  more  definite  do  we  find  the 
statement  of  the  Christian  principle,  that  the  source 
of  religion  is  in  the  heart.  On  the  contrary,  the 
nearer  we  come  to  the  original  sources  of  the  history, 
the  less  definite  do  we  find  the  statements  of  doc- 
trines, and  even  of  the  facts  from  which  the  doctrines 
were  afterwards  inferred.  And,  at  the  very  first,  with 
our  Lord  himself  and  his  apostles,  as  represented  to 
IIS  in  the  New  Testament,  morals  come  before  con- 
templation, ethics  before  theoretics.  In  the  patristic 
writings,  theoretics  assume  continually  an  increasingly 
disproportionate  value.  Even  within  the  compass  of 
our  New  Testament,  there  is  to  be  found  already  a 
wonderful  contrast  between  the  words  of  our  Lord 
and  such  a  discourse  as  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 
There  is  not  wanting,  indeed,  to  this  epistle,  an  earnest 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  181 

moral  appeal ;  but  the  greater  part  of  it  is  illustra- 
tive, argumentative,  and  controversial.  Our  Lord's 
discourses  have  almost  all  of  them,  a  direct  moral 
bearing.  This  character  of  his  words  is  certainly  more 
obvious  in  the  three  first  Gospels  than  in  the  fourth ; 
and  the  remarkable  unison  of  those  Gospels  when  they 
recite  the  Lord's  words,  notwithstanding  their  discrep- 
ancies in  some  matters  of  fact,  compel  us  to  think  that 
they  embody  more  exact  traditions  of  what  he  actually 
said  than  tlie  fourth  does.* 

As  monuments  or  witnesses,  discrepant  in  a  certain 
degree  as  to  other  particulars,  the  evidence  afforded 
by  the  three  Synoptics  to  the  Lord's  own  words  is  the 
most  precious  element  in  the  Christian  records.  We 
are  thereby  placed  at  the  very  root  of  the  Gospel  tra- 
dition. And  these  words  of  the  Lord,  taken  in  con- 
junction with  the  Epistle  of  St.  James,  and  with  the 
first,  or  genuine  Epistle  of  St.  Peter,  leave  no  reason- 
able doubt  of  the  general  character  of  his  teaching 
having  been  what,  for  want  of  a  better  word,  we  must 
perhaps  call  "  moral."  But  to  represent  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  as  a  moral  Spirit,  is  not  merely  to  proclaim  him 
as  a  Lawgiver,  enacting  the  observance  of  a  set  of 


*  The  fourth  Gospel  has  always  been  supposed  to  have  been  written  with 
a  controversial  purpose,  and  not  to  have  been  composed  till  from  sixty  to 
seventy  years  after  the  events  which  it  undertakes  to  narrate.  Some  critics, 
indeed,  think  it  was  not  of  a  date  anterior  to  the  year  140,  and  that  it  pre- 
supposes opinions  of  a  Valentinian  character,  or  even  Montanist,  which 
would  make  it  later  still.  At  any  rate,  it  cannot,  by  external  evidence,  be 
attached  to  the  person  of  St.  John  as  its  author,  in  the  sense  wherein  mod- 
erns understand  the  word  "  author;  "  that  is,  there  is  no  proof  that  St.  John 
gives  his  voucher  as  an  eye  and  ear  witness  of  all  which  is  related  in  it. 
Many  persons  shrink  from  a  bonajtde  examination  of  the  "  Gospel  question," 
because  they  imagine,  that,  unless  the  four  Gospels  are  received  as  perfectly 
genuine  and  authentic,  —  that  is,  entirely  the  composition  of  the  persons 
whose  names  they  bear,  and  without  any  admixture  of  legendary  matter 
or  embellishment  in  their  narratives,  —  the  only  altei-native  is  to  suppose  a 
fraudulent  design  in  those  who  did  compose  them.  This  is  a  supposition 
from  which  common  sense  and  the  moral  instinct  alike  revolt;  but  it  is  hap- 
pily not  an  only  altex'uative. 


182  SEANCES   HISTORIQUES   DE    GENEVE. 

precepts,  but  as  fulfilled  with  a  Spirit  given  to  him 
"  without  measure,"  of  which,  indeed,  all  men  are 
partakers,  who  have  a  sense  of  what  they  "  ought"  to 
be  and  do  ;  yet  flowing  over  from  him,  especially  on 
those  who  perceive,  in  his  words  and  in  his  life,  princi- 
ples of  ever-widening  application  to  the  circumstances 
of  their  own  existence  ;  who  learn  from  him  to  pene- 
trate to  the  root  of  their  conscience,  and  to  recognize 
themselves  as  being  active  elements  in  the  moral  order 
of  the  universe. 

We  may  take  an  illustration  of  the  relative  value  in 
the  apostolic  age  of  the  doctrinal  and  moral  principles, 
by  citing  a  case  which  will  be  allowed  to  be  extreme 
enough.  It  is  evident  there  were  among  the  Christian 
converts,  in  that  earliest  period,  those  who  had  no 
belief  in  a  corporeal  resurrection.  Some  of  these  had, 
perhaps,  been  made  converts  from  the  sect  of  the  Sad- 
ducees,  and  had  brought  with  them  into  the  Chris- 
tian congregation  the  same  doubts  or  negative  beliefs 
which  belonged  to  them  before  their  conversion.  The 
Jewish  Church  embraced  in  its  bosom  both  Pharisees 
and  Sadducees :  but  our  Lord,  although  he  expressly 
taught  a  resurrection  and  argued  with  the  Sadducees 
on  the  subject,  never  treated  them  as  aliens  from  Is- 
rael because  they  did  not  hold  that  doctrine  ;  is  much 
more  severe  on  the  moral  defects  and  hypocrisies  of 
the  Pharisees  than  upon  the  doctrinal  defects  of  the 
Sadducees.  The  Christian  Church  was  recruited  in 
its  Jewish  branch  chiefly  from  the  sect  of  the  Phari- 
sees ;  and  it  is  somewhat  difficult  for  us  to  realize  the 
conversion  of  a  Sadducee  to  Christianity,  retaining 
his  Sadducee  disbelief  or  scepticism.  But  the  "  some 
among  you  who  say  that  there  is  no  resurrection  of  the 
dead"  (1  Cor.  xv.  12,  comp.  2  Tim.  ii.  18)  can  leave 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  183 

US  in  no  doubt  upon  the  matter,  that  there  were 
Christians  of  Sadducee  or  Gentile  prejudices,  like 
those  who  mocked  or  those  who  hesitated  when  Paul 
preached  at  Athens  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  But 
St.  Paul  argues  with  such  elaborately  in  that  chapter, 
without  expelling  them  from  the  Church ;  although 
he  always  represents  faith  in  the  resurrection  as  the 
corner-stone  of  the  Christian  belief.  He  endeavors 
rather  to  conciliate  and  to  remove  objections.  First, 
he  represents  the  rising  to  life  again,  not  as  miracu- 
lous or  exceptional,  but  as  a  law  of  humanity,  or  at 
least  of  Christian  and  spiritualized  humanity  ;  and  he 
treats  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  not  as  a  wonder,  but 
as  a  prerogative  instance.  Secondly,  he  shows,  upon 
the  doctrine  of  a  spiritual  body,  how  the  objections 
against  a  resurrection  from  the  gross  conception  of  a 
flesh-and-blood  body  fall  to  the  ground.*  Now,  if 
there  might  thus  be  Sadducee,  or  quasi-Sadducee, 
Christians  in  the  Church,  their  Christianity  must 
have  consisted  in  an  appreciation  of  the  moral  spirit 
of  Jesus,  and  in  an  obedience,  such  as  it  might  be, 
to  the  Christian  precepts  :  they  could  have  been  in- 
fluenced by  no  expectation  of  a  future  recompense. 
Their  obedience  might  or  might  not  be  of  as  high  an 
order  as  that  which  is  so  motived :  it  might  have  been 
a  mere  legal  habit,  or  an  exalted  disinterested  life. 
Now  let  us  compare  a  person  of  this  description  with 
such  as  those  who  are  indicated  (1  Cor.  xv.  19,  32)  ; 
and  we  cannot  think  that  St.  Paul  is  there  speaking 
of  himself  personally,  but  of  the  general  run  of  persons 


*  So,  in  Luke  xx.  27  -  35,  the  Sadducees  are  dealt  with  in  a  like  argu- 
mentative manner.  They  understood  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  to 
imply  the  rising  of  men  with  such  bodies  as  they  now  have.  The  case 
supposed  by  them  loses  its  point  when  the  distinction  is  revealed  between 
the  animal  and  the  angelic  bodies. 


184  SEANCES   HISTORIQUES   DE    GENEVE. 

reluctant  to  exercise  self-restraint  and  to  expose  them- 
selves to  persecution  for  the  gospel's  sake,  yet  induced 
to  do  so  by  the  hope  of  a  future  recompense.  Let  us 
consider  these  two  descriptions  of  persons.  The  one 
class  is  defective  in  the  Christian  doctrine,  and  in  the 
most  fnndamental  article  of  the  apostle's  preaching ; 
the  other,  in  the  Christian  moral  life.  Can  we  say 
that  the  one  defect  was  more  fatal  than  the  other  ? 
We  do  not  find  the  apostle  excommunicating  these 
Corinthians,  who  said  there  was  no  resurrection  of  the 
dead.*  On  the  other  hand,  we  know  it  was  only  in 
an  extreme  case  that  he  sanctioned  excommunication 
for  the  cause  of  immorality.  And  upon  the  whole,  if 
we  cannot  effectnally  compare  the  person  deficient  in 
a  true  belief  of  the  resurrection  with  an  immoral  or 
evil  liver,  if  we  can  only  say  they  were  both  bad 
Christians,  at  least  we  have  no  reason  to  determine 
that  the  good  liver  who  disbelieved  the  resurrection, 
was  treated  by  St.  Paul  as  less  of  a  Christian  than  the 
evil  liver  who  believed  it.  We  cannot  suppose  the 
evil  life  always  to  have  brought  on  the  disbelief  in  the 
doctrine,  nor  the  disbelief  in  the  doctrine  to  have 
issued  always  in  an  evil  life. 

Now,  from  what  has  been  said,  we  gather  two  im- 
portant conclusions :  first,  of  the  at  least  equal  value 
of  the  Christian  life,  as  compared  with  the  Christian 


*  St.  Paul  "  delivered  to  Satan  "  (whatever  that  may  mean)  Hymenseus 
•who  maintained  the  resnrrection  to  be  past  already,  most  likely  meaning 
it  was  only  a  moral  one;  but  it  does  not  appear  it  was  for  this  oflTcnce  he  is 
so  mentioned  in  conjunction  with  Alexander,  and  their  provocation  is  not 
described.  Where  he  is  said  to  have  tauo;lit  that  the  resurrection  is  past 
already,  he  is  in  companionship  with  Philetus,  and  nothing  is  added  of  any 

{nmisllment  of  either.  These  strange  opinions  afterwards  hardened  into 
leretical  doctrine.  Tcv\u\\.  de  Prcescriptione  ITcer.,  c.  xyixVu.:  "  Paulus,  in 
Ima  ad  Corinthios,  notat  negatores  et  dubitatores  resurrectionis.  Haeo 
opinio  propria  Sadducreorum:  partem  ejus  usurpat  ^larcion  et  Apelles,  et 
Valentinus  et  si  qui  alii  resurrectionem  carnis  infringunt  —  seque  tangit  eo9 
qui  discerent  factum  jam  resurrectionem:  id  de  se  Valentini  adseverant." 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  185 

doctrine  ;  and,  secondly,  of  the  retaining  within  the 
Church,  both  of  those  who  were  erroneous  and  defec- 
tive in  doctrine,  and  of  those  who  were  by  their  lives 
unworthy  of  their  profession.  They  who  caused  divis- 
ions and  heresies  were  to  be  marked  and  avoided,  but 
not  expelled  :  and,  if  any  called  a  brother  were  a 
notoriously  immoral  person,  the  rest  were  enjoined, 
no,  not  to  eat  with  him  ;  but  he  was  not  to  be  refused 
the  name  of  brother  or  Christian  (1  Cor.  v.  11). 

It  would  be  difficult  to  devise  a  description  of  a 
Multitudinist  church,  exhibiting  more  saliently  the 
worst  defects  which  can  attend  that  form,  than  this 
which  is  taken  from  the  evidence  of  the  Apostolic 
Epistles.  We  find  the  Pauline  churches  to  have 
comprised,  not  only  persons  of  the  truest  doctrinal 
insight,  of  the  highest  spiritual  attainments,  of  mar- 
tyr-like self-devotion,  but  of  the  strangest  and  most 
incongruous  beliefs,  and  of  the  most  unequal  and 
inconsistent  practice.  The  Individualist  could  say 
nothing  more  derogatory  of  any  Multitudinist  church, 
not  even  of  a  national  one  ;  unless,  perhaps,  he  might 
say  this,  that  less  distinction  is  made  within  such  a 
church  itself,  and  within  all  modern  churches,  be- 
tween their  better  and  worse  members,  than  was  made 
in  the  apostolic  churches.  Any  judicial  sentence  of 
excommunication  was  extremely  rare  in  the  apos- 
tolic age,  as  we  have  seen  ;  and  the  distinction  between 
the  worthy  and  unworthy  members  of  the  Church 
was  to  be  marked,  not  by  any  public  and  authorita- 
tive act,  but  by  the  operation  of  private  conduct  and 
opinion. 

The  apostolic  churches  were  thus  Multitudinist, 
and  they  early  tended  to  become  national  churches  : 
from  the  first;  they  took  collective  names  from  the 


186  SEANCES  HISTORIQUES   DE   GENEVE. 

localities  where  they  were  situate.  And  it  was  natu- 
ral and  proi)er  they  should,  except  upon  the  Calvin- 
istic  theory  of  conversion.  There  is  some  show  of 
reasonable  independence,  some  appearance  of  apply- 
ing the  Protestant  liberty  of  private  judgment,  in 
maintaining  the  Christian  unlawfulness  of  the  union 
of  Church  and  State,  corruption  of  national  establish- 
ments, and  like  propositions ;  but  it  will  be  found, 
that,  where  they  are  maintained  by  serious  and  relig- 
ious people,  they  are  parts  of  a  Calvinistic  system, 
and  are  held  in  connection  with  peculiar  theories  of 
grace,  immediate  conversion,  and  arbitrary  call.  It  is 
as  merely  a  Calvinistic  and  Congregational  common- 
place to  speak  of  the  unholy  union  of  Church  and 
State  accomplished  by  Constantine,  as  it  is  a  Romish 
commonplace  to  denounce  the  unholy  schism  accom- 
plished by  Henry  the  Eighth.  But,  in  fact,  both  those 
sovereigns  only  carried  out,  chiefly  for  their  own  pur- 
poses, that  which  was/  already  in  preparation  by  the 
course  of  events.  Even  Henry  would  not  have  broken, 
with  the  Pope,  if  he  had  not  seen  the  public  mind  to 
be,  in  some  degree,  ripe  for  it ;  nor  would  Constantine 
have  taken  the  first  steps  towards  an  establishment 
of  Christianity,  unless  the  empire  had  already  been 
growing  Christian. 

Unhappily,  together  with  his  inauguration  of  Mul- 
titudinism,  Constantine  also  inaugurated  a  principle 
essentially  at  variance  with  it,  —  the  principle  of  doc- 
trinal limitation.  It  is  very  customary  to  attribute  the 
necessity  of  stricter  definitions  of  the  Christian  creed, 
from  time  to  time,  to  the  rise  of  successive  heresies. 
More  correctly,  there  succeeded  to  the  fluid  state  of 
Christian  opinion,  in  the  first  century  after  Christ,  a 
gradual  hardening   and   systematizing   of  conflicting 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  187 

views ;  and  the  opportunity  of  reverting  to  the  free- 
dom of  the  apostolic  and  immediately  succeeding 
periods  was  finally  lost  for  many  ages  by  the  sanc- 
tion given  by  Constantine  to  the  decisions  of  Nicaea. 
We  cannot  now  be  very  good  judges,  whether  it 
would  have  been  possible,  together  with  the  establish- 
ment of  Christianity  as  the  imperial  religion,  to  enforce 
forbearance  between  the  great  antagonisms  which 
were  then  in  dispute,  and  to  have  insisted  on  the 
maxim,  that  neither  had  a  right  to  limit  the  common 
Christianity  to  the  exclusion  of  the  other.  At  all 
events,  a  principle  at  variance  with  a  true  Multitudi- 
nism  was  then  recognized.  All  parties,  it  must  be 
acknowledged,  were  equally  exclusive ;  and  exclu- 
sion and  definition  have  since  been  the  rule  for  almost 
all  churches,  more  or  less,  even  when  others  of  their 
principles  might  seem  to  promise  a  greater  free- 
dom. 

That  the  members  of  a  Calvinistic  church,  as  in 
the  Geneva  of  Calvin  and  Beza  or  in  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  should  coincide  with  the  members  of  the 
State;  that  "election"  and  "effectual  call"  should 
be  hereditary,  —  is,  of  course,  too  absurd  to  suppose  ; 
and  the  Congregational  Calvanists  are  more  consistent 
than  the  Calvinists  of  Established  churches.  Of  Cal- 
vinism, as  a  system  of  doctrine,  it  is  not  here  proposed 
to  say  anything,  except  that  it  must,  of  necessity,  be 
hostile  to  every  other  creed  ;  and  the  members  of 
a  Calvinistic  church  can  never  consider  themselves 
but  as  parted  by  an  insuperable  distinction  from  all 
other  professors  of  the  gospel :  they  cannot  stand  on 
a  common  footing,  in  any  spiritual  matter,  with  those 
who  belong  to  the  world ;  that  is,  with  all  others 
than  themselves.     The    exclusiveness  of  a  Multitudi- 


188  SEANCES   IIISTORIQUES   DE    GENEVE. 

nist  church,  which  makes,  as  yet,  the  ecclesiastical 
creeds  the  terms  of  its  communion,  may  cease  when 
that  test  or  limitation  is  repealed  ;  but  the  exclusive- 
ness  of  a  Calvinistic  church,  whether  free  from  the 
creeds  or  not,  is  inherent  in  its  principles.  There  is 
no  insuperable  barrier  between  Congregationalists  not 
being  Calvinists,  and  a  Multitudinist  church  which 
should  liberate  itself  sufficiently  from  the  traditional 
symbols.  Doctrinal  limitations  in  the  Multitudinist 
form  of  church  are  not  essential  to  it :  upon  larger 
knowledge  of  Christian  history,  upon  a  more  thorough 
acquaintance  with  the  mental  constitution  of  man, 
upon  an  understanding  of  the  obstacles  they  present 
to  a  true  catholicity,  they  may  be  cast  off".  Nor  is  a 
Multitudinist  church  necessarily  or  essentially  hierar- 
chical in  any  extreme  or  superstitious  sense  :  it  can 
well  admit,  if  not  pure  Congregationalism,  a  large  ad- 
mixture of  the  Congregational  spirit.  Indeed,  a  combi- 
nation of  the  two  principles  will  alone  keep  any  church 
in  health  and  vigor.  Too  great  importance  attached 
to  a  hierarchal  order  will  lead  into  superstitions 
respecting  apostolical  succession,  ministerial  illumina- 
tion, supernatural  sacramental  influence :  mere  Con- 
gregationalism tends  to  keep  ministers  and  people  at 
a  dead  spiritual  level.  A  just  recognition  and  balance 
of  the  two  tendencies  allows  the  emerging  of  the 
most  eminent  of  the  congregation  into  offices  for 
which  they  are  suited  ;  so  that  neither  are  the  true 
hierarchs  and  leaders  of  thought  and  manners  drawn 
down  and  made  to  succumb  to  a  mere  democracy,  nor 
those  clothed  in  the  priests'  robe  who  have  no  true 
unction  from  above.  And  this  just  balance  between 
the  hierarchy  and  the  congregation  would  be  at  least 
as  attainable  in  the  national  form  of  church  as  in  any 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  189 

other,  if  it  were  free  from  dogmatical  tests  and  sim- 
ilar intellectual  bondage.  But  there  are  some  preju- 
dices against  Nationalism  which  deserve  to  be  further 
considered. 

It  was  natural  for  a  Christian  in  the  earliest  period 
to  look  upon  the  Heathen  State  in  which  he  found 
himself  as  if  it  belonged  to  the  kingdom  of  Satan,  and 
not  to  that  of  God  ;  and  consecrated  as  it  was,  in  all 
its  offices,  to  the  Heathen  divinities,  to  consider  it  a 
society  having  its  origin  from  the  powers  of  darkness, 
not  from  the  Lord  of  light  and  life.  In  the  apostolic 
writers,  this  view  appears  rather  in  the  First  Epistle 
of  St.  John  than  with  St.  Paul.  The  horizon  which 
St.  John's  view  embraced  was  much  narrower  than 
St.  Paul's  :  — 

"  Qui  mores  hominum  multorum  vidit  et  urbes." 

If  the  love  felt  and  inculcated  by  St.  John  towards 
the  brethren  was  the  more  intense,  the  charity  with 
which  St.  Paul  comprehended  all  men  was  the  more 
ample  ;  and  it  is  not  from  every  point  of  view  we 
should  describe  St.  John  as  pre-eminently  the  apostle 
of  love.  With  St.  John,  "the  whole  world  lieth  in 
wickedness  ;  "  while  St.  Paul  exhorts  "  prayers  and 
supplications  to  be  made  for  all  men,  for  kings,  and 
for  all  that  are  in  authority."  Taking  a  wide  view 
of  the  world  and  its  history,  we  must  acknowledge 
political  constitutions  of  men  to  be  the  work  of  God 
himself:  they  are  organizations  into  which  human  so- 
ciety grows  by  reason  of  the  properties  of  the  ele- 
ments which  generate  it.  But  the  primitive  Chris- 
tians could  scarcely  be  expected  to  see,  that  ultimately 
the  gospel  was  to  have  sway  in  doing  more  perfectly 
that  vrhich  the  Heathen  religions  were  doing  imper- 
fectly ;  that  its  office  should  be,  not  only  to  quicken 


190  THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

the  spirit  of  the  individual  and  to  confirm  his  future 
hopes,  but  to  sanctify  all  social  relations  and  civil  insti- 
tutions, and  to  enter  into  the  marrow  of  the  national 
life  ;  whereas  Heathenism  had  only  decorated  the  sur- 
face of  it. 

Heathendom  had  its  national  churches.  Indeed,  the 
existence  of  a  national  church  is  not  only  a  permis- 
sible thing,  but  is  necessary  to  the  completion  of  a 
national  life  ;  and  has  shown  itself  in  all  nations  when 
they  have  made  any  advance  in  civilization.  It  has 
been  usual,  but  erroneous,  to  style  the  Jewish  consti- 
tution a  theocracy  in  a  peculiar  and  exclusive  sense, 
as  if  the  combination  of  the  religious  and  civil  life 
had  been  confined  to  that  people.  Even  among  bar- 
barous tribes,  the  fetish-man  establishes  an  authority 
over  the  rest,  quite  as  much  from  the  yearning  of 
others  after  guidance,  as  from  his  own  superior  cun- 
ning. Priesthoods  have  always  been  products.  Priests 
have  neither  been,  as  some  would  represent,  a  set  of 
deliberate  conspirators  against  the  free  thoughts  of 
mankind  ;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  have  they  been  the 
sole  divinely  commissioned  channels  for  communica- 
tion of  spiritual  truth.  If  all  priests  and  ministers 
of  religion  could,  at  one  moment,  be  swept  from  the 
face  of  the  earth,  they  would  soon  be  reproduced.  If 
the  human  race  or  a  given  people  —  and  a  recent  gen- 
eration saw  an  instance  of  something  like  it  in  no 
distant  nation  —  were  resolved  into  its  elements,  and 
all  its  social  and  religious  institutions  shattered  to 
pieces,  it  would  reconstruct  a  political  framework 
and  a  spiritual  organization ;  re-constituting  govern- 
ors, laws,  and  magistrates,  educators,  and  ministers 
of  religion. 

The  distinction  between  the  Jewish  people  and  the 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  191 

other  nations,  in  respect  of  this  so-called  theocracy, 
is  but  feebly  marked  on  both  sides ;  for  the  religious 
element  was  much  stronger  than  has  been  supposed 
in  other  nationalities,  and  the  priesthood  was  by  no 
means  supreme  in  the  Hebrew  State.* 

Constantly  the  title  occurs  in  the  Hebrew  Scrip- 
tures, of  "  the  Lord's  people,"  with  appeals  to  Jehovah 
as  their  Supreme  Governor,  Protector,  and  Judge. 
And  so  it  is  with  polytheistic  nations.  They  are  the 
offspring  of  the  gods.  The  deities  arc  their  guides 
and  guardians,  the  authors  of  their  laws  and  customs. 
Their  worship  is  interwoven  with  the  whole  course 
of  political  and  social  life.  It  will,  of  course,  be  said, 
the  entire  difference  is  no  more  than  this,  —  the  object 
of  worship  in  the  one  case  was  the  true  God ;  in  the 
other  cases,  idols  or  demons.  But  it  is  very  clear  to 
unprejudiced  persons,  that  the  conceptions  which  the 
Hebrews  formed  of  Jehovah,  though  far  superior  to 
the  conceptions  embodied  in  any  other  national  relig- 
ion, were  obscured  by  figurative  representations  of 
him  in  accordance  with  the  character  of  his  worship- 
pers.     The  passions  ascribed  to  him  were  not  those 


*  Previous  to  the  time  of  the  divided  kingdom,  the  Jewish  history  pre- 
sents little  which  is  thoroughly  reliable.  The  taking  of  Jerusalem  by  "  Slii- 
shak  "  is  for  the  Hebrew  history  that  which  the  sacking  of  Rome  by  the 
Gauls  is  for  the  Roman;  and  from  no  facts  ascertainable  is  it  possible  to 
infer  there  was  any  early  period  during  which  the  government  by  the 
priesthood  was  attended  with  success.  Indeed,  the  greater  probability  seems 
on  the  side  of  the  supposition,  that  the  priesthood,  with  its  distinct  offices 
and  chai-ge,  was  constituted  by  royalty;  and  that  the  higher  pretensions  of 
the  priests  were  not  advanced  till  the  reign  of  Josiah.  There  is  no  evidence 
of  the  priesthood  ever  having  claimed  a  supremacy  over  the  kings,  as  if  it 
had  been  in  possession  of  an  oracular  power.  In  the  earlier  monarchy,  the 
kings  offer  sacrifice;  and  the  rudiments  of  a  political  and  religious  organi- 
zation, which  prevailed  in  the  period  of  the  judges,  cannot  be  appealed  to 
as  pre-erainentl}'  a  theocracy.  At  any  rate,'  nothing  could  be  more  unsuc- 
cessful as  a  government,  whatever  it  migiit  be  called.  Indeed,  the  theory 
of  the  Jewish  theocracy  seems  built  chiefly  upon  some  expressions  in  1  Sam. 
viii.,  xii.  Samuel,  however,  Avith  whose  government  the  Israelites  were 
dissatisfied,  was  not  a  priest,  but  a  prophet;  and  the  whole  of  that  part  of 
the  narrative  is  conceived  in  the  prophetical,  not  in  the  priestly  interest. 


192  THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

most  base  and  degrading  ones  attributed  to  their  dei- 
ties by  the  Pagans  ;  and,  on  that  account,  it  has  been 
less  easy  to  separate  the  figurative  description  from 
the  true  idea  of  him.  The  better  Pagans  could  easily 
perceive  the  stories  of  their  gods  to  have  been,  at  the 
best,  allegories,  poetical  embellishments,  inventions 
of  some  kind  or  other.  Jews  did  not  perceive  that 
the  attribution  of  wrath  and  jealousy  to  their  God 
could  only  be  by  a  figure  of  speech  ;  and,  wdiat  is 
worse,  it  is  difficult  to  persuade  many  Christians  of 
the  same  thing  ;  and  solemn  inferences  from  the  figu- 
rative expressions  of  the  Hebrew  literature  have  been 
crystallized  into  Christian  doctrine. 

All  things  sanctioned  among  the  Jews  are  certainly 
not  to  be  imitated  by  us,  nor  all  Pagan  institutions  to 
be  abhorred.  In  respect  of  a  State  religion,  Jew  and 
Gentile  were  more  alike  than  has  been  thought.  All 
nations  have  exhibited,  in  some  form  or  another,  the 
development  of  a  public  religion  ;  and  have  done  so 
by  reason  of  tendencies  inherent  in  their  nationality. 
The  particular  form  of  the  religion  has  been  due  to 
various  causes.  Also,  in  periods  of  transition,  there 
would  for  a  time  be  a  breaking-in  upon  this  feature 
of  national  life.  While  prophets,  philosophers,  reform- 
ers, were  at  work,  or  some  new  principle  winning 
its  way,  the  national  uniformity  would  be  disturbed. 
So  it  was  at  the  first  preaching  of  the  gospel.  St. 
Paul  and  the  Lord  Jesus  himself  offered  it  to  the 
Jews  as  a  nation,  on  the  Multitudinist  principle  ;  but, 
when  they  put  it  from  them,  it  must  make  progress 
by  kindling  a  fire  in  the  earth,  even  to  the  dividing 
families,  —  two  against  three,  and  three  against  two. 
Thereupon  Christians  appear  for  a  while  to  be  aliens 
from  their  countries  and  commonwealths,  but  only  for 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  193 

a  while.  We  must  not  confound  with  an  essential 
principle  of  Christianity  that  which  only  resulted  from 
a  temporary  necessity.  The  Individualist  principle 
may  have  been  the  right  one  for  a  time,  and  under 
certain  circumstances  ;  not  consequently  the  right 
one  under  all  circumstances,  nor  even  the  possible 
one.  In  this  question,  as  in  that  of  hierarchy  and 
in  various  ceremonial  discussions,  the  appeal  to  a  par- 
ticular primitive  antiquity  is  only  an  appeal  from  the 
whole  experience  of  Christendom  to  a  partial  expe- 
rience limited  to  a  short  period.  Moreover,  as  to  the 
mind  of  Jesus  himself  with  respect  to  Nationalism,  it 
IS  fully  revealed  in  those  touching  words,  preserved 
both  in  the  first  and  third  Gospels,  "  How  often  would 
I  have  gathered  thy  children  together,  even  as  a  hen 
gathereth  her  chickens  under  her  wings,  and  ye  would 
not !  " 

Christianity  was  therefore  compelled,  as  it  were 
against  its  will,  and  in  contradiction  to  its  proper  de- 
sign, to  make  the  first  steps  in  its  progress  by  cutting 
across  old  societies,  filtering  into  the  world  by  indi- 
vidual conversions  ;  showing  nevertheless,  from  the 
very  first,  its  Multitudinist  tendencies,  and,  before  it 
could  comprehend  countries  or  cities,  embracing  fami- 
lies and  households,  the  several  members  of  which 
must  have  been  on  very  different  spiritual  levels 
(Acts  XYi.  31-34).  The  Roman  world  was  pene- 
trated, in  the  first  instance,  by  an  individual  and 
domestic  Christianity,  to  which  was  owing  the  first 
conversion  of  our  own  country  :  in  the  second  or 
Saxon  conversion,  the  people  were  Christianized  en 
masse.  Such  conversions  as  this  last  may  not  be 
thought  to  have  been  worth  much :  but  they  were 
worth  the  abolition  of  some  of  the  grossness  of  idola- 
9.  M 


194  THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

try  ;  they  effected  all  of  which  the  subjects  of  them 
were  for  the  time  capable,  and  prepared  the  way  for 
something  better  in  another  generation.  The  conver- 
sions operated  by  the  German  apostle  Boniface  were 
of  the  same  Multitudinous  kind  as  those  of  Austin  and 
Paulinus  in  Britain,  and  for  a  like  reason  :  in  both 
cases,  the  development  of  Christianity  necessarily  fol- 
lowed the  forms  of  the  national  life. 

In  some  parts  of  the  West,  this  national  and  natural 
tendency  was  counteracted  by  the  shattering  which 
ensued  npon  the  breaking-up  of  the  Roman  Empire  ; 
and  in  those  countries  especially  which  had  been 
longest  and  most  closely  connected  with  Pagan  Rome, 
—  such  as  Italy  itself,  Spain,  France,  —  the  people 
felt  themselves  unable  to  stand  alone  in  their  spiritual 
institutions,  and  were  glad  to  lean  on  some  other  prop 
and  centre,  so  far  as  was  still  allowed  them.  The 
Teutonic  churches  were  always  more  free  than  the 
churches  of  the  Latinized  peoples,  though  they  them- 
selves had  derived  their  Christianity  from  Roman  mis- 
sionaries ;  and  among  the  Teutonic  churches  alone 
has  a  freedom  from  extraneous  dominion  as  yet  estab- 
lished itself.  For  a  time,  even  these  could  only  adopt 
the  forms  of  doctrine  and  practice  which  were  cur- 
rent in  other  parts  of  the  West.  But  those  forms 
were  neither  of  the  essence  of  a  national  church,  nor 
even  of  the  essence  of  a  Christian  church.  A  national 
church  need  not,  historically  speaking,  be  Christian  ; 
nor,  if  it  be  Christian,  need  it  be  tied  down  to  par- 
ticular forms  which  have  been  prevalent  at  certain 
times  in  Christendom.  That  which  is  essential  to  a 
national  church  is,  that  it  should  undertake  to  as- 
>  sist  the  spiritual  progress  of  the  nation  and  of  the 
,    individuals  of  which  it  is  composed,  in  their  several 


•  THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  195 

states  and  stages.  Not  even  a  Christian  church  should 
expect  all  those  who  are  brought  under  its  influence 
to  be,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  of  one  and  the  same  stand- 
ard ;  but  should  endeavor  to  raise  each  according 
to  his  capacities,  and  should  give  no  occasion  for  a 
reaction  against  itself,  nor  provoke  the  Individualist 
element  into  separatism.  It  would  do  this  if  it  sub- 
mitted to  define  itself  otherwise  than  by  its  own  nation- 
ality ;  if  it  represented  itself  as  a  part  rather  than  a 
whole  ;  as  deriving  authority,  and  not  claiming  it ;  as 
imitative,  and  not  original. 

It  will  do  this  also,  if,  while  the  civil  side  of  the 
nation  is  fluid,  the  ecclesiastical  side  of  it  is  fixed ;  if 
thought  and  speech  are  free  among  all  other  classes, 
and  not  free  among  those  who  hold  the  office  of 
leaders  and  teachers  of  the  rest  in  the  highest  things ; 
if  they  are  to  be  bound  to  cover  up  instead  of  open- 
ing ;  and  having,  it  is  presumed,  possession  of  the 
key  of  knowledge,  are  to  stand  at  the  door  with  it, 
permitting  no  one  to  enter  unless  by  force.  A  national 
church  may  also  find  itself  in  this  position  ;  which, 
perhaps,  is  our  own.  Its  ministers  may  become  iso- 
lated between  two  other  parties,  —  between  those, 
on  the  one  hand,  who  draw  fanatical  inferences  from 
formularies  and  principles  which  they  themselves  are 
not  able  or  are  unwilling  to  repudiate  ;  and,  on  the 
other,  those  who  have  been  tempted,  in  impatience  of 
old  fetters,  to  follow  free  thought  heedlessly  wherever 
it  may  lead  them.  If  our  own  Churchmen  expect  to 
discourage  and  repress  a  fanatical  Christianity,  with- 
out a  frank  appeal  to  reason  and  a  frank  criticism 
of  Scripture,  they  will  find  themselves  without  any 
effectual  arms  for  that  combat ;  or,  if  they  attempt  to 
check  inquiry  by  the  repetition  of  old  forms  and  de- 


196  THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

lumciations,  thoy  will  be  equally  powerless,  and  run 
tlie  especial  risk  of  turning  into  bitterness  the  sin- 
cerity of  those  who  should  be  their  best  allies,  as 
friends  of  truth.  They  should  avail  themselves  of 
the  aid  of  all  reasonable  persons  for  enlightening  the 
fanatical  religionist,  making  no  reserve  of  any  seem- 
ingly harmless  or  apparently  serviceable  superstitions 
of  their  own.  They  should  also  endeavor  to  supply 
to  the  negative  theologian  some  positive  elements  in 
Christianity,  on  grounds  more  sure  to  him  than  the 
assumption  of  an  objective  "  faith  once  delivered  to 
the  saints,"  which  he  cannot  identify  with  the  creed 
of  any  church  as  yet  known  to  him. 

It  has  been  matter  of  great  boast  within  the  Church 
of  England,  in  common  with  other  Protestant  churches, 
that  it  is  founded  upon  the  "  word  of  God  ;  "  a  phrase 
which  begs  many  a  question,  when  applied  to  the 
canonical  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments ;  a 
phrase  which  is  never  applied  to  them  by  any  of  the 
scriptural  authors  ;  and  which,  according  to  Protestant 
principles,  never  could  be  applied  to  them  by  any 
sufficient  authority  from  without.  In  that  which  may 
be  considered  the  pivot  Article  of  the  Church,  this 
expression  does  not  occur,  but  only  "  Holy  Scripture," 
"  Canonical  Books,"  "  Old  and  New  Testaments."  It 
contains  no  declaration  of  the  Bible  being  throughout 
supernaturally  suggested,  nor  any  intimation  as  to 
which  portions  of  it  were  owing  to  a  special  divine 
illumination  ;  nor  the  slightest  attempt  at  defining 
inspiration,  whether  mediate  or  immediate,  whether 
through,  or  beside,  or  overruling  the  natural  faculties 
of  the  subject  of  it ;  not  the  least  hint  of  the  rela- 
tion between  the  divine  and  human  elements  in  the 
composition  of  the  biblical  books.    Even  if  the  Fathers 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  19T 

have  usually  considered  "  canonical "  as  synonymous 
with  "  miraculously  inspired,"  there  is  nothing  to 
show  that  their  sense  of  the  word  must  necessarily  be 
applied  in  our  own  sixth  Article.  The  word  itself 
may  mean  either  books  ruled  and  determined  by  the 
Church,  or  regulative  books  ;  and  the  employment  of 
it  in  the  Article  hesitates  between  these  two  significa- 
tions. For,  at  one  time,  "  Holy  Scripture  "  and  ca- 
nonical books  are  those  books  "  of  whose  authority 
never  was  any  doubt  in  the  Church  ;  "  *  that  is,  they 
are  "  determined  "  books  :  and  then  the  other,  or  un- 
canonical  books,  are  described  as  those  which  "  the 
Church  doth  not  apply  to  establish  any  doctrine  ; " 
that  is,  they  are  not  "  regulative  "  books.  And,  if  the 
other  principal  churches  of  the  Reformation  have  gone 
further  in  definition  in  this  respect  than  our  own, 
that  is  no  reason  we  should  force  the  silence  of  our 
Church  into  luiison  with  their  expressed  declarations, 
but  rather  that  we  should  rejoice  in  our  comparative 
freedom.! 

The  Protestant  feeling  among  us  has  satisfied  itself 
in  a  blind  way  with  the  anti-Roman  declaration,  that 
"  Holy  Scripture  containeth  all  things  necessary  to 
salvation,  so  that  whatsoever  is  not  read  therein,  nor 
may  be  proved  thereby,  is  not  to  be  required  of  any 
man  that  it  should  be  believed  as  an  article  of  the 


*  This  clause  is  taken  from  the  Wirtemburg  Confession  (1552),  which 
pi'oceeds,  "  Hanc  Scripturara  credimus,  et  confitemur  esse  oracuhim  Spiri- 
tus  Sancti,  cselestibus  testiraoniis  ita  confirmatum,  ut '  si  angelus  de  ccelo 
aliud  prasdicaverit,  anathema  sit.'  " 

t  Thus  the  Helvetic  Confession  states:  "We  believe  and  profess,  that 
the  canonical  Scriptures  of  the  holy  prophets  and  apostles,  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments,  are  the  very  word  of  God,  and  have  sufficient  authority 
from  themselves,  and  not  from  men."  The  Saxon  Confession  refers  to  the 
creeds  as  interpreters  of  Scripture:  "  Nos  vera  fide  amplecti  omnia  scripta 
prophetarem  et  apostolorum ;  et  quidem  in  hac  ipsa  nativa  sententia,  quae 
expressa  est  in  Symbolis,  Apostolico,  Nicseno,  et  Athanasiano."  —  Be  Doc- 
trina. 


198  THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

faith,"  &c.  ;  and  without  reflecting  how  very  much  is 
wisely  left  open  in  that  Article.  For  this  declaration 
itself  is  partly  negative  and  partly  positive.  As  to  its 
negative  part,  it  declares  that  nothing  —  no  clause  of 
creed,  no  decision  of  council,  no  tradition  or  exposi- 
tion —  is  to  be  required  to  be  believed  on  peril  of  sal- 
vation, unless  it  be  scriptural ;  but  it  does  not  lay 
down,  that  everything  which  is  contained  in  Scripture 
must  be  believed  on  the  same  peril.  Or  it  may  be 
expressed  thus :  the  word  of  God  is  contained  in 
Scripture  ;  whence  it  does  not  follow  that  it  is  co- 
extensive with  it.  The  Church  to  which  we  belong 
does  not  put  that  stumbling-block  before  the  feet  of 
her  members  :  it  is  their  own  fault  if  they  place  it 
there  for  themselves,  authors  of  their  own  offence. 
Under  the  terms  of  the  sixth  Article,  one  may  accept 
literally  or  allegorically,  or  as  parable  or  poetry  or 
legend,  the  story  of  a  serpent-tempter,  of  an  ass 
speaking  with  man's  voice,  of  an  arresting  of  the 
earth's  motion,  of  a  reversal  of  its  motion,  of  waters 
standing  in  a  solid  heap,  of  witches,  and  a  variety  of 
apparitions.  So  under  the  terms  of  the  sixth  Article, 
every  one  is  free  in  judgment  as  to  the  primeval  insti- 
tution of  the  sabbath,  the  universality  of  the  Deluge, 
the  confusion  of  tongues,  the  corporeal  taking-up  of 
Elijah  into  heaven,  the  nature  of  angels,  the  reality 
of  demoniacal  possession,  the  personality  of  Satan, 
and  the  miraculous  particulars  of  many  events.  So 
the  dates  and  authorship  of  the  several  books  received 
as  canonical  arc  not  determined  by  any  authority,  nor 
their  relative  value  and  importance. 

Many  evils  have  flowed  to  the  people  of  England, 
otherwise  free  enough,  from  an  extreme  and  too 
exclusive  Scripturalism.     The  rudimentary  education 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  199 

of  a  large  mimber  of  our  countrymen  has  been  mainly 
carried  on  by  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures.  They 
are  read  by  young  children  in  thousands  of  cases, 
where  no  attempt  could  be  made,  even  if  it  were  de- 
sired, to  accompany  the  reading  with  the  safeguard 
of  a  reasonable  interpretation.  A  Protestant  tradition 
seems  to  have  prevailed,  unsanctioned  by  any  of  our 
formularies,  that  the  words  of  Scripture  are  imbued 
with  a  supernatural  property,  by  which  their  true 
sense  can  reveal  itself  even  to  those  who,  by  intel- 
lectual or  educational  defect,  would  naturally  be  in- 
capable of  appreciating  it.  There  is  no  book,  indeed, 
or  collection  of  books,  so  rich  in  words  which  address 
themselves  intelligibly  to  the  unlearned  and  learned 
alike.  But  those  who  are  able  to  do  so  ought  to  lead 
the  less  educated  to  distinguish  between  the  different 
kinds  of  words  which  it  contains  ;  between  the  dark 
patches  of  human  passion  and  error  which  form  a  par- 
tial crust  upon  it,  and  the  bright  centre  of  spiritual 
truth  within. 

Some  years  ago,  a  vehement  controversy  was  car- 
ried on,  whether  the  Scripture  ought  to  be  distributed 
in  this  country  with  or  without  note  and  comment. 
It  was  a  question  at  issue  between  two  great  parties 
and  two  great  organized  societies.  But  those  who 
advocated  the  view  which  was  the  more  reasonable 
in  itself  did  so  in  the  interest  of  an  unreasonable  the- 
ory :  they  insisted  on  the  authority  of  the  Church  in 
an  hierarchical  sense,  and  carried  out  their  commen- 
tations in  dry  catenas  of  doctrine  and  precept.  On 
the  other  side,  the  views  of  those  who  were  for  circu- 
lating the  Bible  without  note  or  comment  were  partly 
superstitious,  and  partly  antagonistic  in  the  way  of  a 
protest  against  the  liierarchical  claim.    The  Scriptures 


200  THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

have  no  doubt  been  receiyed  with  sufficient  readiness 
by  all  classes  of  English  people ;  for  there  has  been 
something  very  agreeable  to  some  of  the  feelings  of 
the  Englishman  in  the  persuasion,  that  he  possesses, 
independently  of  priest  or  clergyman,  the  whole  mat- 
ter of  his  religion  bound  up  in  the  four  corners  of  a 
portable  book,  furnishing  him,  as  he  thinks,  with  an 
infallible  test  of  the  doctrine  which  he  hears  from  his 
preacher  ;  with  a  substitute  for  all  teaching,  if  he  so 
pleases  ;  and  with  the  complete  apparatus  necessary, 
should  he  desire  to  become  the  teacher  of  others  in  his 
turn.  But  the  result  of  this  immense  circulation  of 
the  Scriptures  for  many  years,  by  all  parties,  has  been 
little  adequate  to  what  might  have  been  expected  be- 
forehand from  the  circulation  of  that  which  is  in  itself 
so  excellent  and  divine. 

It  is  ill  to  be  deterred  from  giving  expression  to  the 
truth,  or  from  prosecuting  the  investigation  of  it,  from 
a  fear  of  making  concessions  to  revolutionary  or  cap- 
tious dispositions  ;  for  the  blame  of  this  captiousness, 
when  it  exists,  lies  in  part  at  the  door  of  those  who 
ignore  the  difficulties  of  others,  because  they  may  not 
feel  any  for  themselves.  To  this  want  of  wisdom  on 
the  part  of  the  defenders  of  old  opinions  is  to  be  at- 
tributed, that  the  noting  of  such  differences  as  are 
to  be  found  in  the  evangelical  narratives,  or  in  the 
books  of  Kings  and  Chronicles,  takes  the  appearance 
of  an  attack  upon  a  holy  thing.  The  like  ill  conse- 
quences follow  from  not  acknowledging  freely  the  ex- 
tent of  the  human  element  in  the  sacred  books  ;  for, 
if  this  were  freely  acknowledged  on  the  one  side,  the 
divine  element  would  be  frankly  recognized  on  the 
other.  Good  men  —  and  they  cannot  be  good  without 
the  Spirit  of   God  —  may  err  in  facts,  be  weak  in 


THE  NATIONAL  CHUECH.  201 

memory,  mingle  imagination  with  memory,  be  feeble 
in  inferences,  co'nfound  illustration  with  argument,  be 
varying  in  judgment  and  opinion  ;  but  the  Spirit  of 
absolute  Truth  cannot  err  or  contradict  himself,  if  he 
speak  immediately,  even  in  small  things,  accessories, 
or  accidents.  Still  less  can  we  suppose  him  to  sug- 
gest contradictory  accounts,  or  accounts  only  to  be 
reconciled  in  the  way  of  hypothesis  and  conjecture. 
Some  things  indited  by  the  Holy  Spirit  may  appear 
to  relate  to  objects  of  which  the  whole  cannot  be  em- 
braced by  the  human  intellect ;  and  it  may  not,  as  to 
such  objects,  be  possible  to  reconcile  opposite  sides  of 
divine  truth.  Whether  this  is  the  general  character 
of  Scripture  revelations  is  not  now  the  question ;  but 
the  theory  is  supposable,  and  should  be  treated  with 
respect,  in  regard  to  some  portions  of  Scripture.  To 
suppose,  on  the  other  hand,  a  supernatural  influence 
to  cause  the  record  of  that  which  can  only  issue  in  a 
puzzle,  is  to  lower  infinitely  our  conception  of  the 
divine  dealings  in  respect  of  a  special  revelation. 

Thus  it  may  be  attributed  to  the  defect  of  our  un- 
derstandings, that  we  should  be  unable  altogether  to 
reconcile  the  aspects  of  the  Saviour  as  presented  to  us 
in  the  three  first  Gospels  and  in  the  writings  of  St. 
Paul  and  St.  John.  At  any  rate,  there  were  current 
in  the  primitive  Church  very  distinct  Christologies. 
But  neither  to  any  defect  in  our  capacities,  nor  to  any 
reasonable  presumption  of  a  hidden  wise  design,  nor 
to  any  partial  spiritual  endowments  in  the  narrators, 
can  we  attribute  the  difficulty,  if  not  impossibility,  of 
reconciling  the  genealogies  of  St.  Matthew  and  St. 
Luke,  or  the  chronology  of  the  Holy  Week,  or  the 
accounts  of  the  resurrection  ;  nor  to  any  mystery  in 
the  subject-matter  can  be  referred  the  uncertainty 
9* 


202  THE  NATIONAL   CHURCH. 

in  which  the  New  Testament  writings  leave  us  as  to 
the  descent  of  Jesus  Christ  according  to  the  flesh, 
whether  by  his  mother  he  were  of  the  tribe  of  Judah 
or  of  the  tribe  of  Levi. 

If  the  national  Church  is  to  be  true  to  the  Multitu- 
dinist  principle,  and  to  correspond  ultimately  to  the 
national  character,  the  freedom  of  opinion  which  be- 
longs to  the  English  citizen  should  be  conceded  to  the 
English  Churchman  ;  and  the  freedom  which  is  already 
practically  enjoyed  by  the  members  of  the  congrega- 
tion cannot  without  injustice  be  denied  to  its  ministers. 
A  minister  may  rightly  be  expected  to  know  more  of 
theology  than  the  generality,  or  even  than  the  best 
informed  of  the  laity ;  but  it  is  a  strange  ignoring  of 
the  constitution  of  human  minds  to  expect  all  min- 
isters, however  much  they  may  know,  to  be  of  one 
opinion  in  theoreticals,  or  the  same  person  to  be  sub- 
ject to  no  variation  of  opinion  at  different  periods  of 
his  life.  And  it  may  be  worth  while  to  consider  how 
far  a  liberty  of  opinion  is  conceded  by  our  existing 
laws,  civil  and  ecclesiastical.  Along  with  great  open- 
ings for  freedom,  it  will  be  found  there  are  some 
restraints,  or  appearances  of  restraints,  which  require 
to  be  removed. 

As  far  as  opinion  privately  entertained  is  concerned, 
the  liberty  of  the  English  clergyman  appears  already 
to  be  complete  ;  for  no  ecclesiastical  person  can  be 
obliged  to  answer  interrogations  as  to  his  opinions, 
nor  be  troubled  for  that  which  he  has  not  actually 
expressed,  nor  be  made  responsible  for  inferences 
which  other  people  may  draw  from  his  expressions.* 

*  The  oath  ex  officio  in  the  ecclesiastical  law  is  defined  to  be  an  oath 
•whereby  any  person  may  be  obliged  to  make  any  presentment  of  any  crime 
or  offence,  or  to  confess  or  accuse  himself  or  herself  of  any  criminal  matter 
or  thing,  whereby  he  or  she  may  be  liable  to  any  censure,  penalty,  or  pun- 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  203 

Still,  though  there  may  be  no  power  of  inquisition 
into  the  private  opinions  either  of  ministers  or  people 
in  the  Church  of  England,  there  may  be  some  inter- 
ference with  the  expression  of  them;  and  a  great 
restraint  is  supposed  to  be  imposed  upon  the  clergy, 
by  reason  of  their  subscription  to  the  Thirty-nine 
Articles.  Yet  it  is  more  difficult  than  might  be 
expected  to  define  what  is  the  extent  of  the  legal 
obligation  of  those  who  sign  them;  and  in  this  case 
the  strictly  legal  obligation  is  the  measure  of  the 
moral  one.  Subscription  may  be  thought  even  to 
be  inoperative  upon  the  conscience  by  reason  of  its 
vagueness  :  for  the  act  of  subscription  is  enjoined, 
but  its  effect  or  meaning  nowhere  plainly  laid  down  ; 
and  it  does  not  seem  to  amount  to  more  than  an 
acceptance  of  the  Articles  of  the  Church  as  the  for- 
mal law  to  which  the  subscriber  is  in  some  sense 
subject.  What  that  subjection  amounts  to  must  be 
gathered  elsewhere  ;  for  it  does  not  appear  on  the  face 
of  the  subscription  itself. 

ishment  whatsoever.  4  Jac. :  ''  The  lords  of  the  council  at  Whitehall  de- 
manded of  Popham  and  Coke,  chief  justices,  upon  motion  made  by  the 
Commons  in  Parliament,  in  what  cases  the  ordinary  may  examine  any 
person  ex  officio  upon  oath."  They  answered,  —  1.  That  the  ordinary  can- 
not restrain  any  man,  ecclesiastical  or  temporal,  to  swear  generally  to 
answer  such  interrogations  as  shall  be  administei'ed  to  him,  &c.  2.  That 
no  man,  ecclesiastical  or  temporal,  shall  be  examined  upon  the  secret 
thoughts  of  his  heai-t,  or  of  his  secret  opinion ;  but  something  ought  to  be 
objected  against  him  which  he  hath  spoken  or  done.  Thus,  13  Jac,  Dighton 
and  Holt  were  committed  by  the  high  commissioners,  because,  they  being 
convented  for  slanderous  woVds  agaiiist  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  and 
the  government  of  the  Church,  and  being  tendered  the  oath  to  be  examined, 
they  refused.  The  case  being  brought  before  the  King's  Bench  on  habeas 
corpus^  Coke,  C.  J.,  gave  the  determination  of  the  Court,  "  That  they  ought 
to  be  delivered,  because  their  examination  is  made  to  cause  them  to  ac- 
cuse themselves  of  a  breach  of  a  penal  law,  which  is  against  law;  for  they 
ought  to  proceed  against  them  by  witnesses,  and  not  enforce  them  to  take 
an  oath  to  accuse  themselves."  Then,  by  13  Car.  H.,  c.  12,  it  was  enacted, 
"  That  it  shall  not  be  lawful  for  any  person,  exercising  ecclesiastical  juris- 
diction, to  tender  or  administer  to  any  person  whatsoever  the  oath  usually 
called  the  oath  ex  officio,  or  any  other  oath,  whereby  such  person,  to  whom 
the  same  is  tendered  or  administered,  may  be  charged,  or  compelled  to 
confess  or  accuse,  or  to  pui-ge  himself  or  herself,  of  any  criminal  matter  or 
thing,"  &c.    Burn's  Eccl.  Law,  lit.  14,  15,  ed.  Phillimore. 


204  THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

The  ecclesiastical  authority  on  the  subject  is  to  be 
found  in  the  canons  of  1603,  the  fifth  and  the  thirty- 
sixth..  The  fifth,  indeed,  may  be  applicable,  theoreti- 
cally, both  to  lay  and  to  ecclesiastical  persons :  practi- 
cally, it  can  only  concern  those  of  whom  subscription 
is  really  required.  It  is  entitled,  "  Impugners  of  the 
Articles  of  Religion  established  in  this  Church  of 
England  censured."  —  "  Whosoever  shall  hereafter 
affirm  that  any  of  the  nine  and  thirty  Articles,  &c., 
are  in  any  part  superstitious  or  erroneous,  or  such  as 
he  may  not  with  a  good  conscience  subscribe  unto,  let 
him  be  excommunicated,"  &c.  We  need  not  stay  to 
consider  what  the  effects  of  excommunication  might 
be,  but  rather  attend  to  the  definition  which  the  canon 
itself  supplies  of  "  impugning."  It  is  stated  to  be  the 
affirming  that  any  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  are  in 
any  part  "  superstitious  or  erroneous."  Yet  an  Arti- 
cle may  be  very  inexpedient,  or  become  so  ;  may  be 
unintelligible,  or  not  easily  intelligible  to  ordinary 
people ;  it  may  be  controversial,  and  such  as  to  pro- 
voke controversy,  and  keep  it  alive  when  otherwise  it 
would  subside  ;  it  may  revive  unnecessarily  the  re- 
membrance of  dead  controversies,  all  or  any  of  these, 
without  being  "  erroneous  ;  "  and,  though  not ''  super- 
stitious," some  expressions  may  appear  so,  —  such  as 
those  which  seem  to  impute  an  occult  operation  to  the 
sacraments.  The  fifth  canon  does  not  touch  the  af- 
firming any  of  these  things,  and  more  especially  that 
the  Articles  present  truths  disproportionately,  and  rel- 
atively to  ideas  not  now  current. 

The  other  canon  which  concerns  subscription  is  the 
thirty-sixth,  which  contains  two  clauses,  explanatory, 
to  some  extent,  of  the  meaning  of  ministerial  sub- 
scription, "  That  he  alloiveth  the  Book  of  Articles,"  &c. ; 


THE  NATIONAL  CHUECH.  205 

and  "  that  he  acknowledgeth  the  same  to  be  agreeable 
to  the  word  of  God."  We  "  allow  "  many  things  which 
we  do  not  think  wise  or  practically  useful ;  as  the  less 
of  two  evils  ;  or  an  evil  which  cannot  be  remedied,  or 
of  which  the  remedy  is  not  attainable,  or  is  uncertain 
in  its  operation,  or  is  not  in  our  power,  or  concerning 
which  there  is  much  difference  of  opinion ;  or  where 
the  initiation  of  any  change  does  not  belong  to  our- 
selves, nor  the  responsibility  belong  to  ourselves, 
either  of  the  things  as  they  are,  or  of  searching  for 
something  better.  Many  acquiesce  in,  submit  to, 
"  allow,"  a  law,  as  it  operates  upon  themselves,  which 
they  would  be  horror-struck  to  have  enacted ;  yet  they 
would  gladly  and  in  conscience  "  allow  "  and  submit 
to  it  as  part  of  a  constitution  under  which  they  live, 
against  which  they  would  never  think  of  rebelling, 
which  they  would  on  no  account  undermine,  for  the 
many  blessings  of  which  they  are  fully  grateful :  they 
would  be  silent  and  patient,  rather  than  join,  even  in 
appearance,  the  disturbers  and  breakers  of  its  laws. 
Secondly,  he  "  acknowledgeth  "  the  same  to  be  agree- 
able to  the  word  of  God.  Some  distinctions  may  be 
founded  upon  the  word  "  acknowledge."  He  does  not 
maintain  nor  regard  it  as  self-evident,  nor  originate  it 
as  his  own  feeling,  spontaneous  opinion,  or  conviction: 
but  when  it  is  suggested  to  him,  put  in  a  certain 
shape ;  when  the  intention  of  the  framers  is  borne  in 
mind,  their  probable  purpose  and  design  explained,  to- 
gether with  the  difficulties  which  surrounded  them, — 
he  is  not  prepared  to  contradict,  and  he  acknowledges. 
There  is  a  great  deal  to  be  said  which  had  not  at  first 
occurred  to  him.  Many  other  better  and  wiser  men 
than  himself  have  acknowledged  the  same  thing  :  why 
should  he  be  obstinate  ?     Besides,  he  is  young,  and 


206  THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

has  plenty  of  time  to  reconsider  it ;  or  he  is  old,  and 
continues  to  submit  out  of  habit,  and  it  would  be  too 
absurd,  at  his  time  of  Hfe,  to  be  setting  up  as  a  church 
reformer. 

But,  after  all,  the  important  phrase  is,  that  the  Ar- 
ticles are  ^'  agreeable  to  the  word  of  God."  This 
cannot  mean  that  the  Articles  are  precisely  co-exten- 
sive with  the  Bible,  much  less  of  equal  authority  with 
it  as  a  whole.  Neither  separately  nor  altogether  do 
they  embody  all  which  is  said  in  it;  and  inferences 
which  they  draw  from  it  are  only  good  relatively,  and 
secundum  quid  and  quatemis  concordant.  If  their 
terms  are  biblical  terms,  they  must  be  presumed  to 
have  the  same  sense  in  the  Articles  which  they  have 
in  the  Scripture  ;  and,  if  they  are  not  all  scriptural 
ones,  they  undertake  in  the  pivot  Article  not  to  con- 
tradict the  Scripture.  The  Articles  do  not  make  any 
assumption  of  being  interpretations  of  Scripture,  or 
developments  of  it.  The  greater  must  include  the 
less  ;  and  the  Scripture  is  the  greater. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  may  be  some  things  in  the 
Articles  which  could  not  be  contained,  or  have  not 
been  contained,  in  the  Scripture  ;  such  as  propositions 
or  clauses  concerning  historical  facts  more  recent  than 
the  Scripture  itself:  for  instance,  that  there  never  has 
been  any  doubt  in  the  Church  concerning  the  books 
of  the  New  Testament.  For,  without  including  such 
doubts  as  a  fool  might  have,  or  a  very  conceited  per- 
son ;  witliout  carrying  doubts,  founded  upon  mere  crit- 
icism and  internal  evidence  only,  to  such  an  extent  as 
a  Baur,  or  even  an  Ewald,  —  there  was  a  time  when 
certain  books  existed,  and  certain  others  were  not  as 
yet  written  :  for  example,  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  were 
anterior,  probably,  to  all  of  the  Gospels,  certainly  to 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  207 

that  of  St.  John ;  and  of  course  the  Church  could  not 
receive  without  doubt  books  not  as  yet  composed.  But 
as  the  canon  grew,  book  after  book  emerging  into  ex- 
istence and  general  reception,  there  were  doubts  as  to 
some  of  them,  for  a  longer  or  shorter  period,  either 
concerning  their  authorship  or  their  authority.  The 
framers  of  the  Articles  were  not  deficient  in  learning, 
and  could  not  have  been  ignorant  of  the  passages  in 
Eusebius  where  the  different  books  current  in  Chris- 
tendom in  his  time  are  classified  as  genuine  or  ac- 
knowledged, doubtful  and  spurious.  If  there  be  an 
erroneousness  in  such  a  statement,  as  that  there  never 
was  any  doubt  in  the  Church  concerning  the  Book  of 
the  Revelation,  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  or  the  Sec- 
ond of  St.  Peter,  it  cannot  be  an  erroneousness  in  the 
sense  of  the  fifth  canon,  nor  can  it  be  at  variance  with 
the  word  of  God  according  to  the  thirty-sixth.  Such 
things  in  the  Articles  as  are  beside  the  Scripture  are 
not  in  the  contemplation  of  the  canons.  Much  less 
can  historical  questions  not  even  hinted  at  in  the  Ar- 
ticles be  excluded  from  free  discussion ;  such  as  con- 
cern the  dates  and  composition  of  the  several  books, 
the  compilation  of  the  Pentateuch,  the  introduction  of 
Daniel  into  the  Jewish  canon,  and  the  like,  with  some 
books  of  the  New  Testament,  —  the  date  and  author- 
ship, for  instance,  of  the  fourth  Gospel. 

Many  of  those  who  would  themselves  wish  the  Chris- 
tian theology  to  run  on  in  its  old  forms  of  expression, 
nevertheless  deal  with  the  opinions  of  others,  which 
they  may  think  objectionable,  fairly  as  opinions.  There 
will  always,  on  the  other  hand,  be  a  few  whose  favor- 
ite mode  of  warfare  it  will  be  to  endeavor  to  gain  a 
victory  over  some  particular  person  who  may  hold 
opinions  they  dislike,  by  entangling  him  in  the  formu- 


208  THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

laries.  Nevertheless,  our  formularies  do  not  lend 
themselves  very  easily  to  this  kind  of  warfare.  Con- 
tra retiarium  haculo. 

We  have  spoken  hitherto  of  the  signification  of  sub- 
scription which  may  be  gathered  from  the  canons. 
There  is  also  a  statute,  a  law  of  the  land,  which  for- 
bids, under  penalties,  the  advisedly  and  directly  con- 
tradicting any  of  them  by  ecclesiastics  ;  and  requires 
subscription,  with  declaration  of  "  assent,"  from  ben- 
eficed persons.  This  statute  (13  Eliz.  c.  12),  three 
hundred  years  old,  like  many  other  old  enactments, 
is  not  found  to  be  very  applicable  to  modern  cases  ; 
although  it  is  only  about  fifty  years  ago  that  it  was 
said  by  Sir  William  Scott  to  be  in  viridi  observan- 
tia.  Nevertheless,  its  provisions  would  not  easily  be 
brought  to  bear  on  questions  likely  to  be  raised  in  our 
own  days.  The  meshes  are  too  open  for  modern  re- 
finements ;  for,  not  to  repeat  concerning  the  word 
"  assent"  what  has  been  said  concerning  "  allow"  and 
"  acknowledge,"  let  the  Articles  be  taken  according  to 
an  obvious  classification.  Forms  of  expression,  partly 
derived  from  modern  modes  of  thought  on  metaphys- 
ical subjects,  partly  suggested  by  a  better  acquaint- 
ance than  heretofore  with  the  unsettled  state  of 
Christian  opinion  in  the  immediately  post-apostolic 
age,  may  be  adopted  with  respect  to  the  doctrines 
enunciated  in  the  five  first  Articles,  without  directly 
contradicting,  impugning,  or  refusing  assent  to  them, 
but  passing  by  the  side  of  them,  —  as  with  respect 
to  the  humanifying  of  the  Divine  Word  and  to  the 
Divine  Personalities.  Then  those  which  we  have 
called  the  pivot  Articles,  concerning  the  rule  of  faith 
and  the  sufficiency  of  Scripture,  are  happily  found  to 
make  no  effectual  provision  for  an  absolute  uniformity, 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  209 

when  once  the  freedom  of  interpretation  of  Scripture 
is  admitted  :  they  cannot  be  considered  as  interpreting 
their  own  interpreter.  This  has  sometimes  been  called 
a  circular  proceeding:  it  might  be  resembled  to  a 
lever  becoming  its  own  fulcrum.  The  Articles,  again, 
which  have  a  Lutheran  and  Calvinistic  sound,  are 
found  to  be  equally  open,  because  they  are,  for  the 
most  part,  founded  on  the  very  words  of  Scripture ; 
and  these,  while  worthy  of  unfeigned  assent,  are  capa- 
ble of  different  interpretations.  Indeed,  the  Calvin- 
istic and  Arminian  views  have  been  declared  by  a 
kind  of  authority  to  be  both  of  them  tenable  under 
the  seventeenth  Article  ;  and,  if  the  scriptural  terms 
of  "  election "  and  "  predestination  "  may  be  inter- 
preted in  an  anti-Calvinistic  sense,  "  faith,"  in  the 
tenth  and  following  Articles,  need  not  be  understood 
in  the  Lutheran.  These  are  instances  of  legitimate 
affixing  different  significations  to  terms  in  the  Arti- 
cles, by  reason  of  different  interpretations  of  scriptural 
passages. 

If,  however,  the  Articles  of  religion  and  the  law  of 
the  Church  of  England  be  in  effect  liberal,  flexible,  or 
little  stringent,  is  there  any  necessity  for  expressing 
dissatisfaction  with  them,  any  sufficient  provocation  to 
change  ?  There  may  be  mu<ch  more  liberty  in  a 
church  like  our  own,  the  law  of  which  is  always  in- 
terpreted, according  to  the  English  spirit,  in  the  man- 
ner most  favorable  to  those  who  are  subject  to  its  dis- 
cipline, than  in  one  which,  whether  free  or  not  from 
Articles,  might  be  empowered  to  develop  doctrine 
and  to  denoimce  new  heresies.  Certainly  the  late 
Mr.  Irving,  if  he  had  been  a  clergyman  of  the  Church 
of  England,  could  scarcely  have  been  brought  under 
the  terms  of  any  ecclesiastical  law  of  ours,  for  the 

N 


210  THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

expression  of  opinions  upon  an  abstruse  question 
respecting  the  humanity  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  sub- 
jected him  to  degradation  in  the  Presbyterian  Church 
of  Scotland.  And  this  transition  state  may  be  a  state 
of  as  much  liberty  as  the  Church  of  England  could  in 
any  way  as  yet  have  been  enabled  to  attain,  —  a  state 
of  greater  practical  liberty  than  has  been  attained  in 
churches  supposed  to  be  more  free.  It  is  a  state 
of  safety  and  protection  to  those  who  use  it  wisely, 
under  which  a  further  freedom  may  be  prepared. 

But  it  is  not  a  state  which  ought  to  be  considered 
final,  either  by  the  church  itself  or  by  the  nation.  It 
is  very  well  for  provisions,  which  cease  to  be  easily 
applicable  to  modern  cases,  to  be  suffered  to  fall  into 
desuetude ;  but,  after  falling  into  desuetude,  they 
should  be  repealed.  Desuetude  naturally  leads  to 
repeal.  Obsolete  tests  are  a  blot  upon  a  modern  sys- 
tem ;  and  there  is  always  some  danger  lest  an  anti- 
quated rule  may  be  unexpectedly  revived  for  the  sake 
of  an  odious  individual  application.  When  it  has  out- 
lived its  general  regulative  power,  it  may  still  be  a 
trap  for  the  weaker  consciences  ;  or  when  it  has  be- 
come powerless  as  to  penal  consequences,  it  may  serve 
to  give  a  point  to  invidious  imputations. 

And,  further  than  this,  the  present  apparent  strin- 
gency of  subscription  as  required  of  the  clergy  of  the 
Church  of  England  does  not  belong  to  it  as  part  of  its 
foundation  ;  is  not  even  coeval  with  its  reconstruction 
at  the  period  of  the  Reformation  :  for  the  canons  are 
of  the  date  of  1603  ;  and  the  act  requiring  the  public 
reading  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  with  declaration 
of  assent  by  a  beneficed  person  after  his  induction,  is 
the  13th  Elizabeth.  An  enactment  prohibiting  the 
bishops  from  requiring   the  subscriptions  under   the 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  211 

third  article  of  the  thirty-sixth  canon,  together  with 
the  repeal  of  13th  Elizabeth,  except  as  to  its  second 
section,  would  relieve  many  scruples  and  make  the 
Church  more  national,  without  disturbing  its  ulti- 
mate law.  The  Articles  would  then  obviously  be- 
come for  the  clergy  that  which  they  are  for  the  laity 
of  the  Church,  "  articles  of  peace,  not  to  be  contra- 
dicted by  her  sons,"  as  the  wise  and  liberal  Burnet 
described  them  ;  and  there  is  forcible  practical  reason 
for  leaving  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  as  the  ultimate 
law  of  the  Church,  not  to  be  contradicted,  and  for 
confining  relaxation  to  the  abolition  of  subscrip- 
tion. 

A  large  portion  of  the  Articles  were  originally 
directed  against  the  corruptions  of  the  Church  of 
Rome  ;  and,  whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  unadvis- 
ableness  of  retaining  tests  to  exclude  opinions  which 
few  think  of  reviving  in  their  old  shape,  these  Roman 
doctrines  and  practices  are  seen  to  be  flourishing  in 
full  life  and  vigor.  And  considering  the  many  griev- 
ous provocations  which  the  people  of  England  have 
suffered  from  the  Papacy,  both  in  ancient  and  modern 
times,  they  would  naturally  resist  any  change  wliich 
might,  by  possibility,  weaken  the  barriers  between 
the  National  Church  and  the  encroachments  of  the 
Church  of  Rome.  It  is  evident,  moreover,  that  the 
act  of  signature  to  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  contributes 
nothing  to  the  exclusion  from  the  Church  of  Romish 
views  ;  for,  as  it  is,  opinions  and  practices  prevail 
among  some  of  the  clergy,  which  are  extremely  dis- 
tasteful to  the  generality  of  the  people,  by  reason  of 
their  Romish  character.  Those  of  the  Articles  which 
condemn  the  Romish  errors  cannot  themselves  be 
made  so  stringent  as  to  bar  altogether  the  intrusion 


212  THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

of  some  opinion  of  a  Roman  tone,  which  the  Reformers, 
if  they  coukl  have  foreseen  it,  might  have  desired  to 
exclude,  and  which  is  equally  strange  and  repugnant 
to  the  common  sense  of  the  nation.  No  act  of  sub- 
scription can  supply  this  defect  of  stringency  in  the 
formulas  themselves.  Now,  it  would  be  impossible  to 
secure  the  advantages  of  freedom  in  one  direction, 
without  making  it  equal  as  far  as  it  goes.  We  must 
endeavor  to  liberate  ourselves  from  the  dominion  of 
an  unwise  and  really  unchristian  principle  with  the 
fewest  possible  risks  and  inconveniences. 

Considering,  therefore,  the  practical  difficulties 
which  would  beset  any  change,  and  especially  those 
which  would  attend  either  the  excepting  of  the  anti- 
Romish  articles  from  repeal  or  including  them  in  it, 
any  attempt  at  a  relaxation  of  the  clerical  test  should 
prudently  confine  itself  in  our  generation  to  an  aboli- 
tion of  the  act  of  subscription  ;  leaving  the  Articles 
themselves  protected,  by  the  second  section  of  the 
statute  of  Elizabeth  and  by  the  canons,  against  direct 
contradiction  or  impugning. 

For,  the  act  of  subscription  being  abolished,  there 
would  disappear  the  invidious  distinction  between  the 
clergy  and  laity  of  the  same  communion,  as  if  there 
were  separate  standards  for  each  of  belief  and  morals. 
There  would  disappear,  also,  a  semblance  of  a  promis- 
sory oath  on  a  subject  which  a  promise  is  incapable 
of  reaching.  No  promise  can  reach  fluctuations  of 
opinion  and  personal  conviction.  Open  teaching  can, 
it  is  true,  if  it  be  thought  wise,  be  dealt  with  by  the 
law  and  its  penalties ;  but  the  law  should  content  it- 
self with  saying,  "  You  shall  not  teach  or  proclaim  in 
derogation  of  my  formularies :  "  it  should  not  require 
any  act  which  appears  to  signify  "  I  think."     Let  the 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  213 

security,  be  either  the  penal  or  the  moral  one,  not  a 
commingling  of  the  two.  It  happens  continually,  that 
able  and  sincere  persons  are  deterred  from  entering 
the  ministry  of  the  national  Church  by  this  considera- 
tion :  they  would  be  willing  to  be  subject  to  the  law 
forbidding  them  to  teach  Arianism  or  Pelagianism ; 
(as  what  sensible  man  in  our  day  would  desire  to  teach 
them  ?)  but  they  do  not  like  to  say,  or  be  thought  to 
say,  that  they  assent  to  a  certain  number  of  anti-Arian 
and  anti-Pelagian  propositions.  And  the  absence  of 
vigorous  tone,  not  confined  to  one  party  in  the  Church, 
which  is  to  be  lamented  of  late  years  in  its  ministry, 
is  to  be  attributed  to  the  reluctance  of  the  stronger 
minds  to  enter  an  order  in  which  their  intellects  may 
not  hare  free  play.  The  very  covirse  of  preparation 
for  ordination  —  tied  down  as  it  is  in  one  department 
to  the  study  of  the  Articles,  which  must  perforce  be 
proved  consentaneous  to  the  "  word  of  God  "  accord- 
ing to  some,  and  to  "  Catholic  antiquity  "  according 
to  others  —  has  an  enervating  effect  iipon  the  mind, 
which  is  compelled  to  embrace  much  scholastic  mat- 
ter, not  as  a  history  of  doctrine,  but  as  a  system  of 
truth  of  which  it  ought  to  be  convinced. 

It  may  be  easy  to  urge  invidiously,  with  respect  to 
the  impediments  now  existing  to  undertaking  office  in 
the  national  Church,  that  there  are  other  sects  which 
persons  dissatisfied  with  her  formularies  may  join,  and 
where  they  may  find  scope  for  their  activity  with  lit- 
tle intellectual  bondage.  Nothing  can  be  said  here, 
whether  or  not  there  might  be  elsewhere  bondage  at 
least  as  galling,  of  a  similar  or  another  kind.  But 
the  service  of  the  national  Church  may  well  be  re- 
garded in  a  different  light  from  the  service  of  a  sect. 
It  is  as  properly  an  organ  of  the  national  life  as  a 


214  THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

magistracy  or  a  legislative  estate.  To  set  barriers 
before  the  entrance  upon  its  functions,  by  limitations 
not  absolutely  required  by  public  policy,  is  to  infringe 
upon  the  birthright  of  the  citizens  ;  and  to  lay  down 
as  an  alternative  to  striving  for  more  liberty  of  thought 
and  expression  within  the  Church  of  the  nation,  that 
those  who  are  dissatisfied  may  sever  themselves  and 
join  a  sect,  would  be  paralleled  by  declaring  to  polit- 
ical reformers  that  they  are  welcome  to  expatriate 
themselves,  if  they  desire  any  change  in  the  existing 
forms  of  the  constitution.  The  suggestion  of  the  al- 
ternative is  an  insult :  if  it  could  be  enforced,  it  would 
be  a  grievous  wrong. 

There  is  another  part  of  the  subject  which  may  be 
slightly  touched  upon  in  this  place,  —  that  of  the  en- 
dowment of  the  national  Church.  This  was  well  de- 
scribed by  Mr.  Coleridge  as  the  Nationality.  In  a 
certain  sense,  indeed,  the  nation,  or  state,  is  lord  par- 
amount over  all  the  property  within  its  boundaries  ; 
but  it  provides  for  the  usufruct  of  the  property  in  two 
different  ways.  The  usufruct  of  private  property,  as 
it  is  called,  descends,  according  to  our  laws,  by  inher- 
itance or  testamentary  disposition  ;  and  no  specific 
services  are  attached  to  its  enjoyment.  Tlie  usufruct 
of  that  which  Coleridge  called  the  Nationality  circu- 
lates freely  among  all  the  families  of  the  nation.  The 
enjoyment  of  it  is  subject  to  the  performance  of  spe- 
cial services  ;  is  attainable  only  by  the  possession  of 
certain  qualifications.  In  accordance  with  the  strong 
tendency  in  England  to  turn  every  interest  into 
a  right  of  so-called  private  property,  the  nomina- 
tions to  the  benefices  of  the  national  Church  have 
come,  by  an  abuse,  to  be  regarded  as  part  of  the 
estates  of  patrons,  instead  of  trusts,  as  they  really 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  215 

are.  No  trustee  of  any  analogous  property,  of  a 
grammar-school  for  instance,  would  think  of  selling 
his  right  of  appointment :  he  would  consider  the 
proper  exercise  of  the  trust  his  duty.  Much  less 
would  any  court  of  law  acknowledge  that  a  beneficial 
interest  in  the  trust-property  was  an  asset  belonging 
to  the  estate  of  the  trustee.  If  the  nomination  to  the 
23lace  of  a  schoolmaster  ought  to  be  considered  as 
purely  fiduciary,  much  more  should  the  nomination  of 
a  spiritual  person  to  his  parochial  charge.  Objections 
are  made  against  our  own  national  Church,  founded 
upon  these  anomalies,  which  may  in  time  be  rectified. 
Others  are  made  against  the  very  principle  of  endow- 
ment. 

It  is  said  that  a  fixed  support  of  the  minister  tends 
to  paralyze  both  him  and  his  people ;  making  him 
independent  of  his  congregation,  and  drying  up  their 
liberality.  It  would  be  difficult,  perhaps,  to  say  which 
would  be  the  greater  evil,  —  for  a  minister  to  be  in 
all  things  independent  of  his  people,  or  in  all  things 
dependent  upon  them.  But  the  endowed  minister 
is  by  no  means  independent  of  all  restraints  ;  as,  for 
instance,  of  the  law  of  his  Church,  and,  which  is  much 
more,  of  public  opinion,  especially  of  the  opinion  of 
his  own  people.  The  unendowed  minister  is  depend- 
ent in  all  things,  both  upon  the  opinion  of  his  people 
and  upon  their  liberality ;  and  frequent  complaints 
transpire  among  Nonconformists,  of  the  want  of  some 
greater  fixity  in  the  position  and  sustentation  of  their 
ministers.  In  the  case  of  a  nationally  endowed 
church,  the  people  themselves  contribute  little  or 
nothing  to  its  support.  The  Church  of  England  is 
said  to  be  the  richest  church  in  Europe  ;  which  is 
probably  not  true  :  but  its  people  contribute  less  to  its 


216  THE  NATIONAL   CHURCH. 

support  than  the  members  of  any  other  church  in 
Christendom,  whether  established  or  voluntary.  And, 
if  the  contributing  personally  to  the  support  of  the 
ministry  were  the  only  form  which  Christian  liberality 
could  take,  the  stopping-up  the  outflow  of  it  w^ould 
be  an  incalculable  evil.  But  it  is  not  so :  there  are 
a  multitude  of  other  objects,  even  though  the  princi- 
pal minister  in  a  parish  or  other  locality  were  suffi- 
ciently provided  for,  to  give  an  outlet  for  Christian 
liberality.  It  may  flow  over  from  more  favored  locali- 
ties, where  churches  are  sufficiently  endowed,  into 
more  destitute  districts  and  into  distant  lands.  This 
is  so  with  ourselves  ;  and  those  who  are  familiar  with 
the  statistics  of  the  numerous  voluntary  societies  in 
England  for  Christian  and  philanthropic  purposes, 
know  to  how  great  an  extent  the  bulk  of  the  support 
they  meet  with  is  derived  from  the  contributions  of 
Churchmen.  There  is  reason  to  think,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  the  means  and  willingness  to  give,  on  the 
part  of  Nonconforming  congregations,  are  already 
mainly  exhausted  in  making  provision  for  their  min- 
isters. 

Reverting  to  the  general  interest  m  the  Nationality, 
it  is  evidently  twofold.  First,  in  the  free  circulation 
of  a  certain  portion  of  the  real  property  of  the  coun- 
try, inherited  not  by  blood,  nor  through  the  accident 
of  birth,  but  by  merit  and  in  requital  for  certain 
performances.  It  evidently  belongs  to  the  popular 
interest  that  this  circulation  should  be  free  from  all 
unnecessary  limitations  and  restraints,  —  speculative, 
antiquarian  and  the  like ;  and  be  regulated,  as  far  as 
attainable,  by  fitness  and  capacity  for  a  particular  pub- 
lic service.  Thus  by  means  of  the  national  endowment 
there  would  take  place  a  distribution  of  property  to 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  217 

every  family  in  the  country,  unencumbered  by  family 
provisions  at  each  succession;  a  distribution  in  like 
manner  of  the  best  kind  of  education,  of  which  the  ef- 
fects would  not  be  worn  out  in  one  or  two  generations. 
The  Church  theoretically  is  the  most  popular,  it  might 
be  said  the  most  democratic,  of  all  our  institutions ; 
its  ministers,  as  a  spiritual  magistracy,  true  tribunes 
of  the  pep  pie.  Secondly,  the  general  interest  in  the 
Nationality,  as  the  material  means  whereby  the  high- 
est services  are  obtained  for  the  general  good,  re- 
quires that  no  artificial  discouragements  should  limit 
the  number  of  those  who  otherwise  would  be  enabled 
to  become  candidates  for  the  service  of  the  Church ; 
that  nothing  should  prevent  the  choice  and  recruiting 
of  the  Church  ministers  from  the  whole  of  the  citizens. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  find  that  nearly  one  half  of  our 
population  are  at  present  more  or  less  alienated  from 
the  communion  of  the  national  Church ;  and  do  not, 
therefore,  supply  candidates  for  its  ministry.  Instead 
of  securing  the  excellences  and  highest  attainments 
from  the  whole  of  the  people,  it  secures  them,  by 
means  of  the  national  reserve,  only  from  one  half  : 
the  rest  are  either  not  drawn  up  into  the  Christian 
ministry  at  all,  or  undertake  it  in  connection  with 
schismatical  bodies,  with  as  much  detriment  to  the 
national  unity  as  to  the  ecclesiastical. 

T^e  all  know  how  the  inward  moral  life  —  or  spirit- 
ual life  on  its  moral  side,  if  that  term  be  preferred  — 
is  nourished  into  greater  or  less  vigor  by  means  of 
the  conditions  in  which  the  moral  subject  is  placed. 
Hence,  if  a  nation  is  really  worthy  of  the  name, 
conscious  of  its  own  corporate  life,  it  will  develop 
itself  on  one  side  into  a  Church,  wherein  its  citizens 
may  grow  up  and  be  perfected  in  their  spiritual  na- 
10 


218  THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

ture.  If  there  is  within  it  a  consciousness,  that,  as  a 
nation,  it  is  fulfilHng  no  unimportant  office  in  the 
world,  and  is,  under  the  order  of  Providence,  an  in- 
strument in  giving  the  victory  to  good  over  evil,  and 
to  happiness  over  misery,  it  will  not  content  itself  with 
the  rough  adjustments  and  rude  lessons  of  law  and 
police,  but  will  throw  its  elements,  or  the  best  of  them, 
into  another  mould,  and  constitute  out  of  them  a  soci- 
ety, which  is  in  it,  though  in  some  sense  not  of  it ; 
which  is  another,  yet  the  same. 

That  each  one  born  into  the  nation  is,  together  with 
his  civil  rights,  born  into  a  membership  or  privilege, 
as  belonging  to  a  spiritual  society,  places  him  at  once 
in  a  relation  which  must  tell  powerfully  upon  his  spir- 
itual nature.  For  the  sake  of  the  reaction  upon  its 
own  merely  secular  interests,  the  nation  is  entitled  to 
provide  from  time  to  time,  that  the  Church  teaching 
and  forms  of  one  age  do  not  traditionally  harden  so  as 
to  become  exclusive  barriers  in  a  subsequent  one,  and 
so  the  moral  growth  of  those  who  are  committed  to 
the  hands  of  the  Church  be  checked,  or  its  influences 
conhned  to  a  comparatively  few.  And  the  objects  of 
the  care  of  the  State  and  of  the  Church  will  nearly 
coincide  ;  for  the  former  desires  all  its  people  to  be 
brought  under  the  improving  influence,  and  the  latter 
is  willing  to  embrace  all  who  have  even  the  rudi- 
ments of  the  moral  life. 

And  if  the  objects  of  the  care  of  each  nearly 
coincide,  when  the  office  of  the  Church  is  properly 
understood,  so  errors  and  mistakes  in  defining  Church- 
membership,  or  in  constituting  a  repulsive  mode  of 
Church-teaching,  are  fatal  to  the  purposes  both  of 
Church  and  State  alike. 

It  is  a  great  misrepresentation  to  exhibit  the  State 


THE  NATIONAL  CHUECH.  219 

as  allying  itself  with  one  of  many  sects,  —  a  misrep- 
resentation, the  blame  of  which  does  not  rest  wholly 
with  political  persons,  nor  with  the  partisans  of  sects 
adverse  to  that  which  is  supposed  to  be  unduly  pre- 
ferred. It  cannot  concern  a  State  to  develop  as  part 
of  its  own  organization  a  machinery  or  system  of 
relations  founded  on  the  possession  of  speculative 
truth.  Speculative  doctrines  should  be  left  to  philo- 
sophical schools.  A  national  Church  must  be  con- 
cerned with  the  ethical  development  of  its  members ; 
and  the  wrong  of  supposing  it  to  be  otherwise  is 
participated  by  those  of  the  clericalty  who  consider 
the  Church  of  Christ  to  be  founded,  as  a  society,  on 
the  possession  of  an  abstractedly  true  and  super- 
naturally  communicated  speculation  concerning  God, 
rather  than  upon  the  manifestation  of  a  divine  life  in 
man. 

It  has  often  been  made  matter  of  reproach  to  the 
Heathen  State  religions,  that  they  took  little  concern 
in  the  moral  life  of  the  citizens.  To  a  certain  extent 
this  is  true  ;  for  the  Heathens  of  classical  history  had 
not  generally  the  same  conceptions  of  morals  as  we 
have.  But,  as  far  as  their  conceptions  of  morals 
reached,  their  Church  and  State  were  mutually  bound 
together,  not  by  a  material  alliance,  nor  by  a  gross 
compact  of  pay  and  preferment  passing  between  the 
civil  society  and  the  priesthood,  but  by  the  penetrating 
of  the  whole  public  and  domestic  life  of  the  nation 
with  a  religious  sentiment.  All  the  social  relations 
were  consecrated  by  the  feeling  of  their  being  entered 
into  and  carried  on  under  the  sanction,  under  the 
very  impulse  of  Deity.  Treaties  and  boundaries,  buy- 
ing and  selling,  marrying,  judging,  deliberating  on  af- 
fairs of  State,  spectacles  and  all  popular  amusements, 


220  THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

were  under  tlic  protection  of  Divinity :  all  life  was  a 
worsliip.  It  can  very  well  be  understood  how  philoso- 
phers should  be  esteemed  atheists,  when  they  began  to 
speculate  upon  origins,  causes,  abstract  being,  and  the 
like. 

Certainly  the  sense  of  the  individual  conscience  was 
not  sufficiently  developed  under  those  old  religions. 
Their  observances,  once  penetrated  with  a  feeling 
of  present  Deity,  became,  in  course  of  time,  mere 
dry  and  superstitious  forms.  But  the  glory  of  the 
gospel  would  only  be  partial  and  one-sided,  if,  while 
quickening  the  individual  conscience  and  the  expec- 
tation of  individual  immortality,  it  had  no  spirit  to 
quicken  the  national  life.  An  isolated  salvation,  the 
rescuing  of  one's  self,  the  reward,  the  grace  bestowed 
on  one's  own  labors,  the  undisturbed  repose,  the 
crown  of  glory  in  which  so  many  have  no  share,  the 
finality  of  the  sentence  on  both  hands,  —  reflections 
on  such  expectations  as  these  may  make  stubborn 
martyrs  and  sour  professors,  but  not  good  citizens  ; 
rather  tend  to  unfit  men  for  this  world,  and  in  so 
doing,  prepare  them  very  ill  for  that  which  is  to 
come. 

But  in  order  to  the  possibility  of  recruiting  any 
national  ministry  from  the  whole  of  the  nation,  in 
order  to  the  operation  upon  the  nation  at  large  of  the 
special  functions  of  its  Church,  no  needless  intellectual 
or  speculative  obstacles  should  be  interposed.  It  is 
not  to  be  expected  that  terms  of  communion  could  be 
made  so  large,  as  by  any  possibility  to  comprehend  in 
the  national  Church  the  whole  of  such  a  free  nation 
as  our  own.  There  Avill  always  be  those,  who,  from 
a  conscientious  scruple,  or  from  a  desire  to  define,  or 
from  peculiarities  of  temper,  will  hold  aloof  from  the 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  221 

religion  and  the  worship  of  the  majority ;  and  it  is  not 
desirable  that  it  should  be  otherwise,  so  long  as  the 
national  unity  and  the  moral  action  of  society  are  not 
thereby  seriously  impaired.  No  doubt,  speaking  po- 
litically, and  regarding  merely  the  peacefulness  with 
which  the  machinery  of  ordinary  executive  govern- 
ment can  be  carried  on,  it  has  proved  very  advan- 
tageous to  the  State,  that  an  Established  Church 
has  existed  in  this  country,  to  receive  the  shafts 
which  otherwise  might  have  been  directed  against  it- 
self. Ill-humor  has  evaporated  harmlessly  in  Dissent, 
which  might  otherwise  have  materially  deranged  the 
body  politic  ;  and  village  Hampdens  have  acquired  a 
parochial  renown  sufficient  to  satisfy  their  ambition, 
in  resistance  to  a  church-rate,  whose  restlessness 
might  have  urged  them  to  dispute,  even  to  prison  and 
spoiling  of  their  goods,  the  lawfulness  of  a  war-tax. 
But  whatever  root  of  conscientiousness  and  truth- 
seeking  there  has  been  in  Nonconformity,  whatever 
amount  of  indirect  good  is  produced  by  the  emulation 
of  the  different  religious  bodies,  whatever  safety  to 
social  order  by  the  escapement  for  temper  so  pro- 
vided, the  moral  influence  of  the  better  people  in 
their  several  neighborhoods  is  neutralized  or  lost  for 
want  of  harmony  and  concentration,  when  the  aliena- 
tion from  the  national  Church  reaches  the  extent 
which  it  has  done  in  our  country.  Even  in  the  more 
retired  localities,  industry,  cleanliness,  decency  in  the 
homes  of  the  poor,  school  discipline,  and  truthfulness, 
are  encouraged  far  less  than  they  might  otherwise  be, 
by  reason  of  the  absence  of  rehgious  unanimity  in  the 
superior  classes.  And  if  the  points  of  speculation  and 
of  form  which  separate  Dissenters  from  the  Church  of 
England  were  far  more  important  than  they  are,  and 


222  THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

tlie  approximative  truth  preponderatinglj  upon  the 
side  of  Dissent,  it  would  do  infinitely  more  harm  by 
the  dissension  which  it  creates,  than  it  possibly  could 
accomplish  of  good  by  a  greater  correctness  in  doc- 
trine and  ecclesiastical  constitution.  If  this  statement 
concerns  Dissent  itself  on  one  side,  it  concerns  the 
Church  on  the  other,  or  rather  those  who  so  limit  the 
terms  of  its  communion  as  to  provoke,  and  —  as  human 
beings  are  constituted  —  to  necessitate  separation  from 
it.  It  is  stated  by  Neal,*  that  if  the  alterations  in 
the  Prayer-book,  recommended  by  the  commissioners 
of  1689,  had  been  adopted,  it  would  "  in  all  probability 
have  brought  in  three  parts  in  four  of  the  Dissenters." 
No  such  result  could  be  expected  from  any  "  amend- 
ments "  or  "  concessions  "  now.  Much  less  could  any- 
thing be  hoped  for  by  means  of  a  "  conference."  But 
it  concerns  the  State,  on  the  highest  grounds  of  public 
policy,  to  rectify,  as  far  as  possible,  the  mistakes  com- 
mitted in  former  times  by  itself,  or  by  the  Church 
under  its  sanction  ;  and  without  aiming  at  an  univer- 
sal comprehension,  which  would  be  Utopian,  to  suffer 
the  perpetuation  of  no  unnecessary  barriers,  excluding 
from  the  communion  or  the  ministry  of  the  national 
Church. 

There  are,  moreover,  besides  those  who  have  joined 
the  ranks  of  Dissent,  many  others  holding  aloof  from 
the  Church  of  England  by  reason  of  its  real  or  sup- 
posed dogmatism,  whose  co-operation  in  its  true  work 
would  be  most  valuable  to  it,  and  who  cannot  be- 
come utterly  estranged  from  it,  without  its  losing  ulti- 
mately its  popular  influence  and  its  national  charac- 
ter.    If  those  who  distinguish  themselves  in  science 

*  Hist.  Pur.,  iv.  p.  618. 


THE  NATIONAL  CHUECH.  223 

and  literature  cannot,  in  a  scientific  and  literary  age, 
be  effectually  and  cordially  attached  to  the  Church  of 
their  nation,  they  must  sooner  or  later  be  driven  into 
a  position  of  hostility  to  it.  They  may  be  as  indis- 
posed to  the  teaching  of  the  majority  of  Dissenters  as 
to  that  which  they  conceive  to  be  the  teaching  of  the 
Church  ;  but  the  Church,  as  an  organization,  will  of 
necessity  appear  to  be  the  most  damaged  by  a  scientific 
criticism  of  a  supposed  Christianity  common  to  it  with 
other  bodies.  Many  personal  and  social  bonds  have 
retarded  hitherto  an  issue  which  from  time  to  time 
has  threatened  a  controversy  between  our  science  and 
our  theology.  It  would  be  a  deplorable  day  when  the 
greatest  names  on  either  side  should  be  found  in  con- 
flict ;  and  theology  should  only  learn  to  acknowledge, 
after  a  defeat,  that  there  are  no  irreconcilable  differ- 
ences between  itself  and  its  opponents. 

It  is  sometimes  said  with  a  sneer,  that  the  scientific 
men  and  the  men  of  abstractions  will  never  change 
the  religions  of  the  world :  and  yet  Christianity  has 
certainly  been  very  different  from  what  it  would  have 
been  without  the  philosophies  of  a  Plato  and  an  Aris- 
totle ;  and  a  Bacon  and  a  Newton  exercise  an  influ- 
ence upon  the  biblical  theology  of  Englishmen.  They 
have  modified,  though  they  have  not  made  it.  The 
more  diffused  science  of  the  present  day  will  further 
modify  it.  And  the  question  seems  to  narrow  itself  to 
this :  How  can  those,  who  differ  from  each  other  intel- 
lectually in  such  variety  of  degrees  as  our  more  edu- 
cated and  our  less  educated  classes,  be  comprised  un- 
der the  same  formularies  of  one  national  Church ;  be 
supposed  to  follow  them,  assent  to  them,  appropriate 
them,  in  one  spirit  ?  If  such  formularies  embodied 
only  an  ethical  result  addressed  to  the  individual  and 


224  THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

to  society,  the  speculative  difficulty  would  not  arise  ; 
but  as  they  present  a  fair  and  substantial  representa- 
tion of  the  biblical  records,  incorporating  their  letter 
and  presupposing  their  historical  element,  precisely 
the  same  problem  is  presented  to  us,  intellectually, 
as  English  Churchmen  or  as  biblical  Christians. 

It  does  not  seem  to  be  contradicted,  that,  when 
church  formularies  adopt  the  words  of  Scripture,  these 
must  have  the  same  meaning,  and  be  subject  to  the 
same  questions,  in  the  formularies,  as  in  the  Scripture. 
And  we  may  go  somewhat  further,  and  say,  that  the 
historical  parts  of  the  Bible,  when  referred  to  or  pre- 
supposed in  the  formularies,  have  the  same  value  in 
them  which  they  have  in  their  original  seat ;  and  this 
value  may  consist  rather  in  their  significance,  in  the 
ideas  which  they  awaken,  than  in  the  scenes  them- 
selves which  they  depict.  And  as  Churchmen,  or  as 
Christians,  we  may  vary  as  to  their  value  in  particu- 
lars, —  that  is,  as  to  the  extent  of  the  verbal  accuracy 
of  a  history,  or  of  its  spiritual  significance,  —  without 
breaking  with  our  communion  or  denying  our  sacred 
name.  These  varieties  will  be  determined  partly  by 
the  peculiarities  of  men's  mental  constitution,  partly 
by  the  nature  of  their  education,  circumstances,  and 
special  studies.  And  neither  should  the  idealist  con- 
demn the  literalist,  nor  the  literalist  assume  the  right 
of  excommunicating  the  idealist :  they  are  really  fed 
with  the  same  truths  ;  the  literalist  unconsciously,  the 
idealist  with  reflection.  Neither  can  justly  say  of  the 
other  that  he  undervalues  the  sacred  writings,  or  that 
he  holds  them  as  inspired  less  properly  than  himself. 

The  application  of  ideology  to  the  interpretation 
of  Scripture,  to  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,  to  the 
formularies  of  the  Church,  may  undoubtedly  be  car- 


THE  NATIONAL  CHUECH.  225 

ried  to  an  excess,  —  may  be  pushed  so  far  as  to  leave 
in  the  sacred  records  no  historical  residue  whatever. 
On  the  other  side,  there  is  the  excess  of  a  dull  and 
unpainstaking  acquiescence,  satisfied  with  accepting 
in  an  unquestioning  spirit,  and  as  if  they  were  lit- 
erally facts,  all  particulars  of  a  wonderful  history, 
because  in  some  sense  it  is  from  God.  Between  these 
extremes  lie  infinite  degrees  of  rational  and  irrational 
interpretation. 

It  will  be  observed,  that  the  ideal  method  is  appli- 
cable in  two  ways ;  both  to  giving  account  of  the 
origin  of  parts  of  Scripture,  and  also  in  explanation 
of  Scripture.  It  is  thus  either  critical  or  exegetical. 
An  example  of  the  critical  ideology  carried  to  excess 
is  that  of  Strauss,  which  resolves  into  an  ideal  the 
whole  of  the  historical  and  doctrinal  person  of  Jesus. 
So,  again,  much  of  the  allegorizing  of  Philo  and  Origen 
is  an  exegetical  ideology,  exaggerated  and  wild.  But 
it  by  no  means  follows,  because  Strauss  has  substi- 
tuted a  mere  shadow  for  the  Jesus  of  the  evangelists, 
and  has  frequently  descended  to  a  minute  captiousness 
in  details,  that  there  are  not  traits  in  the  scriptural 
person  of  Jesus  which  are  better  explained  by  refer- 
ring them  to  an  ideal  than  an  historical  origin :  and, 
without  falling  into  fanciful  exegetics,  there  are  parts 
of  Scripture  more  usefully  interpreted  ideologically 
than  in  any  other  manner ;  as,  for  instance,  the  his- 
tory of  the  temptation  of  Jesus  by  Satan,  and  accounts 
of  demoniacal  possessions.  And  liberty  must  be  left 
to  all  as  to  the  extent  in  which  they  apply  the  princi- 
ple ;  for  there  is  no  authority,  through  the  expressed 
determination  of  the  Church  nor  of  any  other  kind, 
which  can  define  the  limits  within  which  it  may  be 
reasonably  exercised. 

10*  o 


226  THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

Thus  some  may  consider  the  descent  of  all  mankind 
from  Adam  and  Eve  as  an  undoubted  historical  fact ; 
others  may  rather  perceive  in  that  relation  a  form  of 
narrative,  into  which,  in  early  ages,  tradition  would 
easily  throw  itself  spontaneously.  Each  race  natural- 
ly, necessarily  when  races  are  isolated,  supposes  itself 
to  be  sprung  from  a  single  pair,  and  to  be  the  first,  or 
the  only  one,  of  races.  Among  a  particular  people, 
this  historical  representation  became  the  concrete 
expression  of  a  great  moral  truth,  —  of  the  brother- 
hood of  all  human  beings,  of  their  community,  as  in 
other  things,  so  also  in  suffering  and  in  frailty,  in  phys- 
ical pains,  and  in  moral  "  corruption."  And  the  force, 
grandeur,  and  reality  of  these  ideas  are  not  a  whit 
impaired  in  the  abstract,  nor  indeed  the  truth  of  the 
concrete  history  as  their  representation,  even  though 
mankind  should  have  been  placed  upon  the  earth  in 
many  pairs  at  once,  or  in  distinct  centres  of  creation. 
For  the  brotherhood  of  men  really  depends,  not  upon 
the  material  fact  of  their  fleshly  descent  from  a  sin- 
gle stock,  but  upon  their  constitution,  as  possessed  in 
common,  of  the  same  faculties  and  affections,  fitting 
them  for  mutual  relation  and  association  ;  so  that  the 
value  of  the  history,  if  it  were  a  history  strictly  so 
called,  would  lie  in  its  emblematic  force  and  applica- 
tion. And  many  narratives  of  marvels  and  catastro- 
phes in  the  Old  Testament  are  referred  to  in  the  New 
as  emblems,  without  either  denying  or  asserting  their 
literal  truth  ;  such  as  the  destruction  of  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah  by  fire  from  heaven,  and  the  Noachian 
deluge.  And  especially  if  we  bear  in  mind  the  exist- 
ence of  such  a  school  as  that  which  produced  Philo, 
or  even  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  we 
must  think  it  would  be  wrong  to  la^  down,  that,  when- 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  227 

ever  the  New  Testament  writers  refer  to  Old  Testa- 
ment histories,  they  imply  of  necessity  that  the  historic 
truth  was  the  first  to  them.  For  their  purposes,  it  was 
often  wholly  in  the  background,  and  the  history  valu- 
able only  in  its  spiritual  application.  The  same  may 
take  place  with  ourselves,  and  history  and  tradition  be 
employed  emblematically,  without,  on  that  account, 
being  regarded  as  untrue.  We  do  not  apply  the  term 
"  untrue  "  to  parable,  fable,  or  proverb,  although  their 
words  correspond  with  ideas,  not  with  material  facts  : 
as  little  should  we  do  so  when  narratives  have  been 
the  spontaneous  product  of  true  ideas,  and  are  capa- 
ble of  reproducing  them. 

The  ideologian  is  evidently  in  possession  of  a  prin- 
ciple which  will  enable  him  to  stand  in  charitable 
relation  to  persons  of  very  different  opinions  from  his 
own,  and  of  very  different  opinions  mutually  ;  and,  if 
he  has  perceived  to  how  great  extent  the  history 
of  the  origin  itself  of  Christianity  rests  ultimately 
upon  probable  evidence,  his  principle  will  relieve  him 
from  many  difficulties  which  might  otherwise  be  very 
disturbing :  for  relations  which  may  repose  on  doubt- 
ful grounds  as  matter  of  history,  and,  as  history,  be 
incapable  of  being  ascertained  or  verified,  may  yet 
be  equally  suggestive  of  true  ideas  with  facts  abso- 
lutely certain.  The  spiritual  significance  is  the  same 
of  the  transfiguration,  of  opening  blind  eyes,  of  caus- 
ing the  tongue  of  the  stammerer  to  speak  plainly,  of 
feeding  multitudes  with  bread  in  the  wilderness,  of 
cleansing  leprosy,  whatever  links  may  be  deficient 
in  the  traditional  record  of  particular  events.  Or  let 
us  suppose  one  to  be  uncertain  whether  our  Lord 
were  born  of  the  house  and  lineage  of  David  or  of 
the  tribe  of  Levi,  and  even  to  be  driven  to  conclude 


228  THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

that  the  genealogies  of  him  liavc  little  historic  value  : 
nevertheless,  in  idea,  Jesus  is  both  Son  of  David  and 
Son  of  Aaron  ;  both  Prince  of  Peace  and  High  Priest 
of  our  profession  ;  as  he  is,  under  another  idea,  though 
not  literally,  "  without  father  and  without  mother." 
And  he  is  none  the  less  Son  of  David,  Priest  Aaron- 
ical,  or  Royal  Priest  Melchizedecan,  in  idea  and  spir- 
itually, even  if  it  be  unproved  whether  he  were  any 
of  them  in  historic  fact.  In  like  manner,  it  need 
not  trouble  us,  if,  in  consistency,  we  should  have  to 
suppose  both  an  ideal  origin  and  to  apply  an  ideal 
meaning  to  the  birth  in  the  city  of  David,  and  to  other 
circumstances  of  the  infancy.  So,  again,  the  incar- 
nification  of  the  divine  Immanuel  remains,  although 
the  angelic  appearances  which  herald  it  in  the  narra- 
tives of  the  evangelists  may  be  of  ideal  origin,  accord- 
ing to  the  conceptions  of  former  days.  The  ideologian 
may  sometimes  be  thought  sceptical,  and  be  sceptical 
or  doubtful  as  to  the  historical  value  of  related  facts  : 
but  the  historical  value  is  not  always  to  him  the  most 
important,  —  frequently  it  is  quite  secondary;  and, 
consequently,  discrepancies  in  narratives,  scientific  dif- 
ficulties, defects  in  evidence,  do  not  disturb  him  as 
they  do  the  literalist. 

Moreover,  the  same  principle  is  capable  of  applica- 
tion to  some  of  those  inferences  which  have  been  the 
source,  according  to  different  theologies,  of  much  con- 
troversial acrimony  and  of  wide  ecclesiastical  separa- 
tions ;  such  as  those  which  have  been  drawn  from  the 
institution  of  the  sacraments.  Some,  for  instance,  can- 
not conceive  a  presence  of  Jesus  Christ  in  his  institu- 
tion of  the  Lord's  Supper,  unless  it  be  a  corporeal  one  ; 
nor  a  spiritual  influence  upon  the  moral  nature  of  man 
to  be  connected  with  baptism,  unless  it  be  be  super- 


THE  NATIONAL  CHUECH.  229 

natural,  quasi-mechanical,  effecting  a  psychical  change 
then  and  there.  But  within  these  concrete  concep- 
tions there  lie  hid  the  truer  ideas  of  the  virtual  pres- 
ence of  the  Lord  Jesus  everywhere  that  he  is  preached, 
remembered,  and  represented  ;  and  of  the  continual 
force  of  his  spirit  in  his  words,  and  especially  in  the 
ordinance  which  indicates  the  separation  of  the  Chris- 
tian from  the  world. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  the  concrete  conceptions 
of  an  hierarchy  described  by  its  material  form-  and 
descent ;  also  of  millenarian  expectations  of  a  personal 
reign  of  the  saints  with  Jesus  upon  earth,  and  of  the 
many  embodiments  in  which  from  age  to  age  has  re- 
appeared the  vision  of  a  New  Jerusalem  shining  with 
mundane  glory  here  below.  These  gross  conceptions, 
as  they  seem  to  some,  may  be  necessary  to  others,  as 
approximations  to  true  ideas.  So,  looking  for  redemp- 
tion in  Israel  was  a  looking  for  a  very  different  re- 
demption, with  most  of  the  Jewish  people,  from  that 
which  Jesus  really  came  to  operate  ;  yet  it  was  the 
only  expectation  which  they  could  form,  and  was  the 
shadow  to  them  of  a  great  reality. 

"  Lo,  the  pool-  Indian,  whose  untutoi*ed  mind 
Sees  God  in  clouds,  or  hears  him  in  the  wind." 

Even  to  the  Hebrew  Psalmist,  he  comes  flying  upon 
the  wings  of  the  wind  ;  and  only  to  the  higher  prophet 
is  he  not  in  the  wind,  nor  in  the  earthquake,  nor  in 
the  fire,  but  in  "  the  still  small  voice."  Not  the  same 
thoughts  —  very  far  from  the  same  thoughts  —  pass 
through  the  minds  of  the  more  and  the  less  instructed 
on  contemplating  the  same  face  of  the  natural  world. 
In  like  manner  are  the  thoughts  of  men  various,  in 
form  at  least,  if  not  in  substance,  when  they  read  the 
same  Scripture  histories  and  use  the  same  Scripture 


230  THE  NATIONAL  CHUECH. 

phrases.  Histories  to  some  become  parables  to  others, 
and  facts  to  those  are  emblems  to  these.  The  "  rock  " 
and  the  "  cloud  "  and  the  "  sea  "  convey  to  the  Chris- 
tian admonitions  of  spiritual  verities ;  and  so  do  the 
ordinances  of  the  Church,  and  various  parts  of  its 
forms  of  worship. 

Jesus  Christ  has  not  revealed  his  religion  as  a  the- 
ology of  the  intellect,  nor  as  an  historical  faith  ;  and  it 
is  a  stifling  of  the  true  Christian  life,  both  in  the  indi- 
vidual and  in  the  Church,  to  require  of  many  men  a 
unanimity  in  speculative  doctrine,  which  is  unattain- 
able, and  a  uniformity  of  historical  belief,  which  can 
never  exist.  The  true  Christian  life  is  the  conscious- 
ness of  bearing  a  part  in  a  great  moral  order,  of  which 
the  highest  agency  upon  earth  has  been  committed  to 
the  Church.  Let  us  not  oppress  this  work,  nor  com- 
plicate the  difficulties  with  which  it  is  surrounded  : 
"  not  making  the  heart  of  the  righteous  sad,  whom  the 
Lord  hath  not  made  sad  ;  nor  strengthening  the  hands 
of  the  wicked  by  promising  him  life." 

There  is  enough,  indeed,  to  sadden  us  in  the  doubt- 
ful warfare  which  the  good  wages  with  the  evil,  both 
within  us  and  without  us.  How  few,  under  the  most 
favorable  conditions,  learn  to  bring  themselves  face  to 
face  with  the  great  moral  law,  which  is  the  manifesta- 
tion of  the  will  of  God  !  The  greater  part  can  only 
detect  the  evil  when  it  comes  forth  from  them,  nearly 
as  when  any  other  might  observe  it.  We  cannot,  in 
the  matter  of  those  who  are  brought  under  the  high- 
est influences  of  the  Christian  Church,  any  more  than 
in  the  case  of  mankind  viewed  in  their  ordinary  re- 
lations, give  any  account  of  the  apparently  useless 
expenditure  of  power,  of  the  apparent  overbearing 
generally   of  the   higher  law  by   the   lower,   of  the 


THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  231 

apparent  poverty  of  result  from  the  operation  of  a 
wonderful  machinery,  of  the  seeming  waste  of  myri- 
ads of  germs  for  the  sake  of  a  few  mature  growths. 
"  Many  are  called,  but  few  chosen  ;  "  and  under  the 
privileges  of  the  Christian  Church,  as  in  other  mys- 
teries, — 

TToXXot  [i€v  vapdrjKocPopoi,  /3aK;(ot  Se  ye  navpoi. 

Calvinism  has  a  keen  perception  of  this  truth  ;  and 
we  shrink  from  Calvinism  and  Augustinianism,  not  be- 
cause of  their  perceiving  how  few,  even  under  Chris- 
tian privileges,  attain  to  the  highest  adoption  of  sons, 
but  because  of  the  inferences  with  which  they  clog 
that  truth,  —  the  inferences  which  they  draw  respect- 
ing the  rest,  whom  they  comprehend  in  one  mass  of 
perdition. 

The  Christian  Church  can  only  tend  on  those  who    : 
are  committed  to  its  care,  to  the  verge  of  that  abyss    ; 
which  parts  this  world  from  the  world  unseen.     Some    | 
few  of  those  fostered  by  her  are  now  ripe  for  entering    j 
on  a  higher  career :  the  many  are  but'  rudimentary 
spirits,  germinal  souls.     What  shall  become  of  them  ? 
If  we  look  abroad  in  the  world,  and  regard  the  neu 
tral  character  of  the  multitude,  we  are  at  a  loss  to 
apply  to  them  either  the  promises  or  the  denuncia- 
tions  of  revelation.      So   the   wise    Heathens    could    , 
anticipate  a  reunion  with  the  great  and  good  of  all 
ages  ;  they  could  represent  to  themselves,  at  least  in 
a  figurative  manner,  the  punishment  and  the  purgatory 
of  the  wicked :  but  they  would  not  expect  the  reap- 
pearance in  another  world,  for  any  purpose,  of  a  Ther- 
sites  or  an  Hyperboles  ;  social  and  poetical  justice  had 
been  sufficiently  done  upon  them.    Yet  there  are  such 
as  these,  and  no  better  than  these,  under  the  Christian 


232  THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

name,  —  babblers,  biisybodies,  livers  to  get  gain,  and 
mere  eaters  and  drinkers.  The  Roman  Church  has 
imagined  a  limhus  infantium :  we  must  rather  enter- 
tain a  hope  that  there  shall  be  found,  after  the  great 
adjudication,  receptacles  suitable  for  those  who  shall 
be  infants,  not  as  to  years  of  terrestrial  life,  but  as  to 
spiritual  development ;  nurseries,  as  it  were,  and  seed- 
grounds,  where  the  undeveloped  may  grow  up  under 
new  conditions,  the  stunted  may  become  strong,  and 
the  perverted  be  restored.  And  when  the  Christian 
Church,  in  all  its  branches,  shall  have  fulfilled  its  sub- 
lunary office,  and  its  Founder  shall  have  surrendered 
his  kingdom  to  the  Great  Father,  all,  both  small  and 
great,  shall  find  a  refuge  in  the  bosom  of  the  Uni- 
versal Parent,  to  repose,  or  be  quickened  into  higher 
life,  in  the  ages  to  come,  according  to  his  will. 


THE    MOSAIC    COSMOGONY. 

y 

By    C.   W.   GOODWIN,  M.  A. 

ON  the  revival  of  science  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
some  of  the  earhest  conclusions  at  which  phi- 
losophers arrived  were  found  to  be  at  variance  with 
popular  and  long-established  belief.  The  Ptolemaic 
system  of  astronomy,  which  had  then  full  possession 
of  the  minds  of  men,  contemplated  the  whole  visible 
universe  from  the  earth  as  the  immovable  centre  of 
things.  Copernicus  changed  the  point  of  view  ;  and, 
placing  the  beholder  in  the  sun,  at  once  reduced  the 
earth  to  an  inconspicuous  globule,  a  merely  subordinate 
member  of  a  family  of  planets,  which  the  terrestrials 
had  until  then  fondly  imagined  to  be  but  pendants 
and  ornaments  of  their  own  habitation.  The  Church 
naturally  took  a  lively  interest  in  the  disputes  which 
arose  between  the  philosophers  of  the  new  school  and 
those  who  adhered  to  the  old  doctrines  ;  inasmuch  as 
the  Hebrew  records,  the  basis  of  religious  faith  mani- 
festly countenanced  the  opinion  of  the  earth's  immo- 
bility, and  certain  other  views  of  the  universe  very 
incompatible  with  those  propounded  by  Copernicus. 
Hence  arose  the  official  proceedings  against  Galileo, 
in  consequence  of  which  he  submitted  to  sign  his 
celebrated  recantation,  acknowledging  that  "  the  prop- 
osition that  the  sun  is  the  centre  of  the  world,  and 


234  MOSAIC   COSMOGONY. 

immovable  from  its  jDlace,  is  absurd,  pliilosophically 
false,  and  formally  heretical,  because  in  it  is  expressly 
contrary  to  the  Scripture  ;  "  and  that  "  the  proposition 
that  the  earth  is  not  the  centre  of  the  world,  nor  im- 
movable, but  that  it  moves,  and  also  with  a  diurnal 
motion,  is  absurd,  philosophically  false,  and  at  least 
erroneous  in  faith." 

The  llomish  Church,  it  is  presumed,  adheres  to  the 
old  views  to  the  present  day.  Protestant  instincts, 
however,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  were  strongly 
in  sympathy  with  the  augmentation  of  science  ;  and 
consequently  Reformed  churches  more  easily  allowed 
themselves  to  be  helped  over  the  difficulty,  which, 
according  to  the  views  of  inspiration  then  held,  and 
which  have  survived  to  the  present  day,  was,  in  real- 
ity, quite  as  formidable  for  them  as  for  those  of  the 
old  faith.  The  solution  of  the  difficulty  offered  by 
Galileo  and  others  was,  that  the  object  of  a  revelation, 
or  divine  unveiling  of  mysteries,  must  be  to  teach 
man  things  which  he  is  unable,  and  must  ever  remain 
unable,  to  find  out  for  himself ;  but  not  physical 
truths,  for  the  discovery  of  which  he  has  faculties 
specially  provided  by  his  Creator.  Hence  it  was  not 
unreasonable  that,  in  regard  to  matters  of  fact  mere- 
ly, the  Sacred  Writings  should  use  the  common  lan- 
guage and  assume  the  tiommon  belief  of  mankind, 
without  purporting  to  correct  errors  upon  points 
morally  indifferent.  So  in  regard  to  such  a  text 
as,  "  Tlie  world  is  established,  it  cannot  be  moved," 
though  it  might  imply  the  sacred  penman's  ignorance 
of  the  fact  that  the  earth  does  move,  yet  it  does  not 
put  forth  this  opinion  as  an  indispensable  point  of 
faith.  And  this  remark  is  applicable  to  a  number  of 
texts  which  present  a  similar  difficulty. 


MOSAIC    COSMOGONY.  235 

It  might  be  thought  to  have  been  less  easy  to 
reconcile  in  men's  minds  the  Copernican  view  of  the 
universe  with  the  very  plain  and  direct  averments 
contained  in  the  opening  chapter  of  Genesis.  It  can 
scarcely  be  said  that  this  chapter  is  not  intended  in 
part  to  teach  and  convey  at  least  some  physical  truth  ; 
and,  taking  its  words  in  their  plain  sense,  it  manifestly 
gives  a  view  of  the  universe  adverse  to  that  of  mod- 
ern science.  It  represents  the  sky  as  a  watery  vault, 
in  which  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  are  set.  But  the 
discordance  of  this  description  with  facts  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  so  palpable  to  the  minds  of  the 
seventeenth  century  as  it  is  to  us.  The  mobility  of 
the  earth  was  a  proposition  startling  not  only  to  faith, 
but  to  the  senses.  The  difficulty  involved  in  this  be- 
lief having  been  successfully  got  over,  other  discrepan- 
cies dwindled  in  importance.  The  brilliant  progress  of 
astronomical  science  subdued  the  minds  of  men.  The 
controversy  between  faith  and  knowledge  gradually 
fell  to  slumber.  The  story  of  Galileo  and  the  Inqui- 
sition became  a  school  commonplace.  The  doctrine 
of  the  earth's  mobility  found  its  way  mto  children's 
catechisms,  and  the  limited  views  of  the  nature  of  the 
universe  indicated  in  the  Old  Testament  ceased  to  be 
felt  as  religious  difficulties. 

It  would  have  been  well  if  theologians  had  made 
up  their  minds  to  accept  frankly  the  principle,  that 
those  things  for  the  discovery  of  which  man  has 
faculties  specially  provided  are  not  fit  objects  of  a 
divine  revelation.  Had  this  been  unhesitatingly  done, 
either  the  definition  and  idea  of  divine  revelation 
must  have  been  modified,  and  the  possibility  of  an 
admixture  of  error  have  been  allowed,  or  such  parts 
of  the  Hebrew  writings  as  were  found  to  be  repugnant 


236  MOSAIC   COSMOGONY. 

to  fact  must  have  been  pronounced  to  form  no  part  of 
revelation.  The  first  course  is  that  which  theologians 
have  most  generally  adopted,  but  with  such  limita- 
tions, cautels,  and  equivocations,  as  to  be  of  little  use 
in  satisfying  those  who  would  know  how  and  what 
God  really  has  taught  mankind,  and  whether  any- 
thing beyond  that  which  man  is  able  and  obviously 
intended  to  arrive  at  by  the  use  of  his  natural  facul- 
ties. 

The  difficulties  and  disputes  which  attended  the 
first  revival  of  science  have  recurred  in  the  present 
century  in  consequence  of  the  growth  of  geology.  It 
is,  in  truth,  only  the  old  question  over  again,  —  pre^ 
cisely  the  same  point  of  theology  which  is  involved,  — 
although  the  difficulties  which  present  themselves  are 
fresh.  The  school-books  of  the  present  day,  while 
they  teach  the  child  that  the  earth  moves,  yet  assure 
him  that  it  is  a  little  less  than  six  thousand  years  old, 
and  that  it  was  made  in  six  days.  On  the  other  hand, 
geologists  of  all  religious  creeds  are  agreed  that  the 
earth  has  existed  for  an  immense  series  of  years,  —  to 
be  counted  by  millions  rather  than  by  thousands ;  and 
that  indubitably  more  than  six  days  elapsed  from  its 
first  creation  to  the  appearance  of  man  upon  its  sur- 
face. By  this  broad  discrepancy  between  old  and  new 
doctrine  is  the  modern  mind  startled,  as  were  the  men 
of  the  sixteenth  century  when  told  that  the  earth 
moved. 

When  this  new  cause  of  controversy  first  arose, 
some  writers,  more  hasty  than  discreet,  attacked  the 
conclusions  of  geologists,  and  declared  them  scientifi- 
cally false.  This  phase  may  now  be  considered  past ; 
and,  although  school-books  probably  continue  to  teach 
much   as   they   did,   no   well-instructed    person   now 


MOSAIC   COSMOGONY.  237 

doubts  the  great  antiquity  of  the  earth  any  more  than 
its  motion.  This  being  so,  modern  theologians,  for- 
saking the  maxim  of  Gahleo,  or  only  using  it  vaguely 
as  an  occasional  make-weight,  have  directed  their  at- 
tention to  the  possibility  of  reconciling  the  Mosaic  nar- 
rative with  those  geological  facts  which  are  admitted 
to  be  beyond  dispute.  Several  modes  of  doing  this 
have  been  proposed,  which  have  been  deemed  more  or 
less  satisfactory.  In  a  text-book  of  theological  instruc- 
tion widely  used,*  we  find  it  stated  in  broad  terms, 
"  Geological  investigations,  it  is  now  known,  all  prove 
the  perfect  harmony  between  Scripture  and  geology, 
in  reference  to  the  history  of  creation." 

In  truth,  however,  if  we  refer  to  the  plans  of  concil- 
iation proposed,  we  find  them  at  variance  with  each 
other,  and  mutually  destructive.  The  conciliators  are 
not  agreed  among  themselves,  and  each  holds  the 
views  of  the  other  to  be  untenable  and  unsafe.  The 
ground  is  perpetually  being  shifted,  as  the  advance  of 
geological  science  may  require.  The  plain  meaning 
of  the  Hebrew  record  is  unscrupulously  tampered 
with ;  and,  in  general,  the  pith  of  the  whole  process 
lies  in  divesting  the  text  of  all  meaning  whatever. 
We  are  told,  that,  Scripture  not  being  designed  to 
teach  us  natural  philosophy,  it  is  in  vain  to  attempt 
to  make  out  a  cosmogony  from  its  statements.  If  the 
first  chapter  of  Genesis  convey  to  us  no  information 
concerning  the  origin  of  the  world,  its  statements 
cannot,  indeed,  be  contradicted  by  modern  discovery. 
But  it  is  absurd  to  call  this  harmony.  Statements 
such  as  that  above  quoted  are,  we  conceive,  little  cal- 
culated to  be  serviceable  to  the  interests  of  theology, 

*  Home's  Introduction  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  1856,  tenth  edition. 


238  MOSAIC   COSMOGONY. 

still  less  to  religion  and  morality.  Believing,  as  we 
do,  that,  if  the  value  of  the  Bible,  as  a  book  of  relig- 
ious instruction  is  to  be  maintained,  it  must  be,  not  by 
striving  to  prove  it  scientifically  exact  at  the  expense 
of  every  sound  principle  of  interpretation,  and  in  de- 
fiance of  common  sense,  but  by  the  frank  recognition 
of  the  erroneous  views  of  nature  which  it  contains,  we 
have  put  pen  to  paper  to  analyze  some  of  the  popular 
conciliation  theories.  The  inquiry  cannot  be  deemed 
a  superfluous  one,  nor  one  which,  in  the  interests  of 
theology,  had  better  be  let  alone.  Physical  science 
goes  on  unconcernedly  pursuing  its  own  paths.  The- 
ology, the  science  whose  object  is  the  dealing  of  God 
with  man  as  a  moral  being,  maintains  but  a  shivering 
existence,  shouldered  and  jostled  by  the  sturdy  growths 
of  modern  thought,  and  bemoaning  itself  for  the  hos- 
tility which  it  encounters.  Why  should  this  be,  unless 
because  theologians  persist  in  clinging  to  theories  of 
God's  procedure  towards  man,  which  have  long  been 
seen  to  be  untenable  ?  If,  relinquishing  theories,  they 
would  be  content  to  inquire  from  the  history  of  man 
what  this  procedure  has  actually  been,  the  so-called 
difficulties  of  theology  would,  for  the  most  part,  van- 
ish of  themselves. 

The  account  which  astronomy  gives  of  the  relations 
of  our  earth  to  the  rest  of  the  universe,  and  that 
which  geology  gives  of  its  internal  structure  and  the 
development  of  its  surface,  are  sufficiently  familiar  to 
most  readers.  But  it  will  be  necessary  for  our  pur- 
pose to  go  over  the  oft-trodden  ground,  which  must 
be  done  with  rapid  steps.  Nor  let  the  reader  object 
to  be  reminded  of  some  of  the  most  elementary  facts 
of  his  knowledge.  The  human  race  has  been  ages  in 
arriving  at  conclusions  now  familiar  to  every  child. 


MOSAIC   COSMOGONY.  239 

This  earth,  apparently  so  still  and  steadfast,  lying 
in  majestic  repose  beneath  the   ethereal   vault,  is  a 
globular    body,   of    comparatively    insignificant    size, 
whirling   fast   through   space   round   the  sun  as  the 
centre  of  its  orbit,  and  completing  its  revolution  in 
the  course  of  one  year ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  it 
revolves  daily  once  about  its  own  axis,  thus  producing 
the  changes  of  day  and  night.     The  sun,  which  seems 
to  leap  up  each  morning  from  the  east,  and,  traversing 
the  skyey  bridge,  slides  down  into  the  west,  is  rela- 
tively, to  our  earth,  motionless.     In  size  and  weight,  it 
inconceivably  surpasses  it.    The  moon,  which  occupies 
a  position  in  the  visible  heavens  only  second  to  the 
sun,  and  far  beyond  that  of  every  other  celestial  body 
in  conspicuausness,  is  but  a  subordinate  globe,  much 
smaller  than  our  own,  and  revolving  round  the  earth 
as  its  centre,  while  it  accompanies  it  in  yearly  revo- 
lutions about  the  sun.     Of  itself  it  has  no  lustre,  and 
is  visible  to  us  only  bythe  reflected  sunlight.     Those 
beautiful  stars,  which  are  perpetually  changing  their 
position  in  the  heavens,  and   shine  with  a  soft  and 
moon-like   light,  are  bodies,  some  much  larger,  some 
less,  than  our  earth,  and,  like  it,  revolve  round  the 
sun,  by  the  reflection  of  whose  rays  we   see   them. 
The  telescope  has  revealed  to  us  the  fact,  that  several 
of  these  are  attended  by  moons   of  their  own ;  and 
that,  besides  those  which  the  unassisted  eye  can  see, 
there  are  others  belonging  to  the  same  family  cours- 
ing round  the  sun.     As  for  the  glittering  dust  which 
emblazons  the  nocturnal  sky,  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that  each  spark  is  a  self-luminous  body,  perhaps  of 
similar  material  to  our  sun ;  and  that  the  very  nearest 
of  the  whole  tribe  is  at  an  incalculable  distance  from 
us,  —  the  very  least  of  them  of  enormous  size  com- 


240  MOSAIC   COSMOGONY. 

pared  with  our  own  humble  globe.  Thus  has  modern 
science  reversed  nearly  all  the  prima  facie  views  to 
which  our  senses  lead  us  as  to  the  constitution  of  the 
universe ;  but  so  thoroughly  are  the  above  statements 
wrought  into  the  culture  of  the  present  day,  that  we 
are  apt  to  forget  that  mankind  once  saw  these  things 
very  differently,  and  that  but  a  few  centuries  have 
elapsed  since  such  views  were  startling  novelties. 

Our  earth,  then,  is  but  one  of  the  lesser  pendants 
of  a  body  which  is  itself  only  an  inconsiderable  unit 
in  the  vast  creation.  And  now,  if  we  withdraw  our 
thoughts  from  the  immensities  of  space,  and  look  into 
tlie  construction  of  man's  obscure  home,  the  first  ques- 
tion is,  whether  it  has  ever  been  in  any  other  con- 
dition than  that  in  which  we  now  see  it ;  and,  if  so, 
what  are  the  stages  through  which  it  has  passed  ? 
and  what  was  its  first  traceable  state  ?  Here  geology 
steps  in,  and  successfully  carries  back  the  history  of 
the  earth's  crust  to  a  very  remote  period,  until  it 
arrives  at  a  region  of  uncertainty,  where  philosophy 
is  reduced  to  mere  guesses  and  possibilities,  and  pro- 
nounces nothing  definite.  To  this  region  belong  the 
speculations  which  have  been  ventured  upon  as  to 
the  original  concretion  of  the  earth  and  planets  out  of 
nebular  matter,  of  which  the  sun  may  have  been  the 
nucleus.  But  the  first  clear  view  which  we  obtain  of 
the  early  condition  of  the  earth  presents  to  us  a  ball 
of  matter,  fluid  with  intense  heat,  spinning  on  its 
own  axis,  and  revolving  round  the  sun.  How  long  it 
may  have  continued  in  this  state  is  beyond  calcula- 
tion or  surmise.  It  can  only  be  believed  that  a  pro- 
longed period,  beginning  and  ending  we  know  not 
when,  elapsed  before  the  surface  became  cooled  and 
hardened,  and  capable  of  sustaining  organized  exist- 


MOSAIC   COSMOGONY.  241 

ences.  The  water,  which  now  inwraps  a  large  portion 
of  the  face  of  the  globe,  must  for  ages  have  existed 
only  in  tlie  shape  of  steam,  floating  above  and  envelop- 
ing the  planet  in  one  thick  curtain  of  mist.  When  the 
cooling  of  the  surface  allowed  it  to  condense  and  de- 
scend, then  commenced  the  process  by  which  the  low- 
est stratified  rocks  were  formed,  and  gradually  spread 
out  in  vast  layers.  Rains  and  rivers  now  acted  upon 
the  scoriaceous  integument,  grinding  it  to  sand,  and 
carrying  it  down  to  the  depths  and  cavities.  Whether 
organized  beings  co-existed  with  this  state  of  things 
we  know  not,  as  the  early  rocks  have  been  acted 
upon  by  interior  heat  to  an  extent  which  must  have 
destroyed  all  traces  of  animal  and  vegetable  life,  if 
any  such  ever  existed.  This  period  has  been  named 
by  geologists  the  Azoic,  or  that  in  which  life  was  not. 
Its  duration  no  once  presumes  to  define. 

It  is  in  the  system  of  beds  which  overlies  these 
primitive  formations  that  the  first  records  of  organ- 
isms present  themselves.  In  the  so-called  Silurian 
system,  we  have  a  vast  assemblage  of  strata  of  various 
kinds,  together  many  thousands  of  feet  thick,  and 
abounding  in  remains  of  animal  life.  These  strata 
were  deposited  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  and  the 
remains  are  exclusively  marine.  The  creatures  whose 
exuvias  have  been  preserved  belong  to  those  classes 
which  are  placed  by  naturalists  the  lowest  with  re- 
spect to  organization,  —  the  mollusca,  articulata,  and 
radiata.  Analagous  beings  exist  at  the  present  day, 
but  not  their  lineal  descendants,  unless  time  can  effect 
transmutation  of  species  ;  an  hypothesis  not  generally 
accepted  by  naturalists.  In  the  same  strata  with 
these  inhabitants  of  the  early  seas  are  found  remains 
of  fucoid  or  seaweed-like  plants  (the  lowest  of  the 
11  P 


242  MOSAIC   COSMOGONY. 

vegetable  tribe),  which  may  have  been  the  first  of  this 
kind  of  existences  introdnccd  into  the  world  ;  but,  as 
little  has  yet  been  discovered  to  throw  light  upon  the 
state  of  the  dry  land  and  its  productions  at  this  re- 
mote period,  nothing  can  be  asserted  positively  on  the 
subject.* 

In  the  upper  strata  of  the  Silurian  system  is  found 
the  commencement  of  the  race  of  fishes  (the  lowest 
creatures  of  the  vertebrate  type),  and  in  the  succeed- 
ing beds  they  become  abundant.  These  monsters 
clothed  in  mail,  who  must  have  been  the  terror  of 
the  seas  they  inhabited,  have  left  their  indestructible 
coats  behind  them  as  evidences  of  their  existence. 

Next  come  the  carboniferous  strata,  containing  the 
remains  of  a  gigantic  and  luxuriant  vegetation ;  and 
here  reptiles  and  insects  begin  to  make  their  appear- 
ance. At  this  point,  geologists  make  a  kind  of  arti- 
ficial break,  and,  for  the  sake  of  distinction,  denominate 
the  whole  of  the  foregoing  period  of  animated  exist- 
ences the  Palaeozoic,  or  that  of  antique  life. 

In  the  next  great  geological  section,  the  so-called 
Secondary  period,  in  which  are  comprised  the  oolitic 
and  cretaceous  systems,  the  predominant  creatures 
are  different  from  those  which  figured  conspicuously 
in  the  preceding.  The  land  was  inhabited  by  gigan- 
tic animals,  half-toad,  half-lizard,  who  hopped  about, 
leaving  often  their  footprints,  like  those  of  a  clumsy 
human  hand,  upon  the  sandy  shores  of  the  seas  they 
frequented.  The  waters  now  abounded  with  monsters, 
half- fish,  half- crocodile  (the  well-known  saurians), 
whose  bones  have  been  collected  in  abundance.  Even 
the  air  had  its  tenantry  from  the  same  family  type ; 

*  It  has  been  stated  that  a  coal-bed,  containing  remains  of  land  plants, 
underlying  strata  of  the  lower  Silurian  class,  has  been  found  in  Poi'tugal. 


MOSAIC   COSMOGONY.  243 

for  the  pterodactyls  were  creatures  half-lizard,  half- 
vampire,  provided  with  membranous  appendages  which 
must  have  enabled  them  to  fly.  In  an  early  stage 
of  this  period,  traces  of  birds  appear ;  and,  somewhat 
later,  those  of  mammals,  but  of  the  lowest  class  be- 
longing to  that  division  ;  namely,  the  marsupial  or 
pouch-bearing  animals,  in  which  naturalists  see  affini- 
ties to  the  oviparous  tribes.  The  vegetation  of  this 
period  seems  to  have  consisted  principally  of  the  lower 
classes  of  plants,  according  to  the  scale  of  organiza- 
tion accepted  by  botanists ;  but  it  was  luxuriant  and 
gigantic. 

Lastly  comes  the  Tertiary  period,  in  which  mam- 
malia of  the  highest  forms  enter  upon  the  scene,  while 
the  composite  growths  of  the  Secondary  period  in 
great  part  disappear,  and  the  types  of  creatures  ap- 
proach more  nearly  to  those  which  now  exist.  During 
long  ages  this  state  of  things  continued,  while  the 
earth  was  the  abode  principally  of  mastodons,  ele- 
phants, rhinoceroses,  and  their  thick-hided  congeners, 
many  of  them  of  colossal  proportions,  and  of  species 
which  have  now  passed  away.  The  remains  of  these 
creatures  have  been  found  in  the  frozen  rivers  of  the 
North,  and  they  appear  to  have  roamed  over  regions  of 
the  globe  where  their  more  delicate  representatives  of 
the  present  day  would  be  unable  to  live.  During  this 
era,  the  ox,  horse,  and  deer,  and  perhaps  other  ani- 
mals, destined  to  be  serviceable  to  man,  became  inhabi- 
tants of  the  earth.  Lastly,  the  advent  of  man  may  be 
considered  as  inaugurating  a  new  and  distinct  epoch, 
—  that  in  which  we  now  are,  and  during  the  whole  of 
which  the  physical  conditions  of  existence  cannot  have 
been  very  materially  different  from  what  they  are 
now.     Thus  the  reduction  of  the  earth  into  the  state 


244  MOSAIC   COSMOGONY. 

ill  which  we  now  behold  it  has  been  the  slowly  con- 
tinued work  of  ages.  The  races  of  organic  beings 
which  have  populated  its  surface  have  from  time  to 
time  passed  away  and  been  supplanted  by  others,  in- 
troduced we  know  not  certainly  by  what  means,  but 
evidently  according  to  a  fixed  method  and  order,  and 
with  a  gradually  increasing  complexity  and  fineness  of 
organization,  until  we  come  to  man  as  the  crowning 
point  of  all.  Geologically  speaking,  the  history  of 
his  first  appearance  is  obscure ;  nor  does  archaeology 
do  much  to  clear  this  obscurity.  Science  has,  how- 
ever, made  some  efforts  towards  tracing  man  to  his 
cradle  ;  and  by  patient  observation,  and  collection  of 
facts,  much  more  may  perhaps  be  done  in  this  direc- 
tion. As  for  history  and  tradition  they  afford  little 
upon  which  anything  can  be  built.  The  human  race, 
like  each  individual  man,  has  forgotten  its  own  birth  ; 
and  the  void  of  its  early  years  has  been  filled  up  by 
imagination,  and  not  from  genuine  recollection.  Thus 
much  is  clear,  that  man's  existence  on  earth  is  brief, 
compared  with  the  ages  during  which  unreasoning 
creatures  were  the  sole  possessors  of  the  globe. 

We  pass  to  the  account  of  the  creation  contained  in 
the  Hebrew  record.  And  it  must  be  observed,  that, 
in  reality,  two  distinct  accounts  are  given  us  in  the 
book  of  Genesis,  —  one  being  comprised  in  the  first 
chapter  and  the  first  three  verses  of  the  second  ;  the 
other  commencing  at  the  fourth  verse  of  the  second 
chapter,  and  continuing  till  the  end.  This  is  so  philo- 
logically  certain,  that  it  were  useless  to  ignore  it. 
But  even  those,  who  may  be  inclined  to  contest  the 
fact  that  we  have  here  the  productions  of  two  different 
writers,  will  admit  tliat  the  account  beginning  at  the 
first  verse  of  the  first  chapter,  and  ending  at  the  third 


MOSAIC   COSMOGONY.  245 

verse  of  the  second,  is  a  complete  whole  in  itself. 
And  to  this  narrative,  in  order  not  to  complicate  the 
subject  unnecessarily,  we  intend  to  confine  ourselves. 
It  will  be  sufficient  for  our  purpose  to  inquire,  whether 
this  account  can  be  shown  to  be  in  accordance  with 
our  astronomical  and  geological  knowledge  ;  and,  for 
the  right  understanding  of  it,  the  whole  must  be  set 
out,  so  that  the  various  parts  may  be  taken  in  connec- 
tion with  one  another. 

We  are  told  that  "  in  the  beginning  God  created 
the  heaven  and  the  earth."  It  has  been  matter  of 
discussion  amongst  theologians,  whether  the  word 
"  created  "  (Heb.  bara)  here  means  simply  shaped  or 
formed,  or  shaped  or  formed  out  of  nothing.  From 
the  use  of  the  verb  bara  in  other  passages,  it  appears 
that  it  does  not  necessarily  mean  to  make  out  of 
nothing  ;  *  but  it  certainly  might  impliedly  mean  this 
in  a  case  so  peculiar  as  the  present.  The  phrase,  "  the 
heaven  and  the  earth,"  is  evidently  used  to  signify 
the  universe  of  things  ;  inasmuch  as  the  heaven  in  its 
proper  signification  has  no  existence  until  the  second 
day.  It  is  asserted  then  that  God  shaped  the  whole 
material  universe,  whether  out  of  nothing,  or  out  of 
pre-existing  matter.  But  which  sense  the  writer  really 
intended  is  not  material  for  our  present  purpose  to  in- 
quire, since  neither  astronomical  nor  geological  science 
affects  to  state  anything  concerning  the  first  origin  of 
matter. 

In  the  second  verse,  the  earliest  state  of  things  is 

*  This  appears  at  once  fi-om  ver.  21,  where  it  is  said  that  God  created 
(bara)  the  great  whales;  and  from  ver.  26  and  27,  in  the  first  of  which  we 
read,  "  God  said,  Let  us  make  {hasah)  man  in  our  image;  "  and  in  the  lat- 
ter, "  So  God  created  (bara)  man  in  his  image."  In  neither  of  these  cases 
can  it  be  supposed  to  be  implied  that  the  whales  or  man  were  made  out  of 
nothing.  lu  the  second  narrative,  another  woxxl  is  used  for  the  creation  of 
man,  —  itzer,  "to  mould;  "  and  his  formation  out  of  the  dust  is  circumstan- 
tially described. 


246  MOSAIC   COSMOGONY. 

described  ;  according  to  the  received  translation,  ''  The 
earth  was  without  form,  and  void."  The  Prophet 
Jeremiah*  uses  the  same  expression  to  describe  the 
desolation  of  the  earth's  surface  occasioned  by  God's 
wrath  ;  and  perhaps  the  words  "  empty  and  waste  " 
would  convey  to  us  at  present  something  more  nearly 
approaching  the  meaning  of  tohu  va-bohu  than  those 
which  the  translators  have  used. 

The  earth  itself  is  supposed  to  be  submerged  under 
the  waters  of  the  deep,  over  which  the  breath  of  God 
—  the  air,  or  wind  —  flutters  while  all  is  involved  in 
darkness.  The  first  special  creative  command  is  that 
which  bids  the  light  appear  ;  whereupon  daylight 
breaks  over  the  two  primeval  elements  of  earth  and 
water,  —  the  one  lying  still  enveloped  by  the  other  : 
and  the  space  of  time  occupied  by  the  original  dark- 
ness and  the  light  which  succeeded  is  described  as  the 
first  day.  Thus  light  and  the  measurement  of  time 
are  represented  as  existing  before  the  manifestation  of 
the  sun  ;  and  this  idea,  although  repugnant  to  our 
modern  knowledge,  has  not  in  former  times  appeared 
absurd.  Thus  we  find  Ambrose  Q'  Hexaemeron," 
lib.  4,  cap.  3)  remarking,  "  We  must  recollect  that 
the  light  of  day  is  one  thing ;  the  light  of  the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars,  another,  —  the  sun  by  his  rays  ap- 
pearing to  add  lustre  to  the  daylight.  For  before 
sunrise  the  day  dawns,  but  is  not  in  full  refulgence  ; 
for  the  midday  sun  adds  still  further  to  its  splendor." 
We  quote  this  passage  to  show  how  a  mind  unsophis- 
ticated by  astronomical  knowledge  understood  the 
Mosaic  statement ;  and  we  may  boldly  affirm,  that 
those  for  whom  it  was  first  penned  could  have  taken 

Chap.  iv.  33. 


MOSAIC  COSMOGONY.  247 

it  in  no  other  sense  than  that  light  existed  before  and 
independently  of  the  sun :  nor  do  we  misrepresent  it 
when  we  affirm  this  to  be  its  natural  and  primary 
meaning.  How  far  we  are  entitled  to  give  to  the 
writer's  words  an  enigmatical  and  secondary  meaning, 
as  contended  by  those  who  attempt  to  conciliate  them 
with  our  present  knowledge,  must  be  considered  fur- 
ther on. 

The  work  of  the  second  day  of  creation  is  to  erect 
the  vault  of  heaven  (Heb.  7'akia ;  Gr.  arepeco/jLa  ;  Lat. 
firmamentwii),  which  is  represented  as  supporting  an 
ocean  of  water  above  it.  The  waters  are  said  to  be 
divided ;  so  that  some  are  below,  some  above,  the 
vault.  That  the  Hebrews  understood  the  sky,  firma- 
ment, or  heaven,  to  be  a  permanent  solid  vault,  as  it 
appears  to  the  ordinary  observer,  is  evident  enough 
from  various  expressions  made  use  of  concerning  it. 
It  is  said  to  have  pillars  (Job  xxvi.  11),  foundations 
(2  Sam.  xxii.  8),  doors  (Ps.  Ixxviii.  23),  and  windows 
(Gen.  vii.  11).  No  quibbling  about  the  derivation  of 
the  word  rakia,  which  is  literally  something  beaten 
out,*  can  affect  the  explicit  description  of  the  Mosaic 
writer,  contained  in  the  words,  "  the  waters  that  are 
above  the  firmament,"  or  avail  to  show  that  he  was 
aware  that  the  sky  is  but  transparent  space. 

On  the  third  day  at  the  command  of  God,  the 
waters  which  have  hitherto  concealed  the  earth  are 
gathered  together  in  one  place,  —  the  sea ;  and  the 
dry  land  emerges.  Upon  the  same  day,  the  earth 
brings  forth  grass,  herb  yielding  seed,  and  fruit-trees, 
the  destined  food  of  the  animals  and  of  man  (ver.  29). 

*  The  root  is  generally  applied  to  express  the  hammering  or  beating  out 
of  metal  plates;  hence  something  beaten  or  spread  out.  It  has  been  pre- 
tended that  the  word  rakin  may  be  translated  "  expanse,"  so  as  merely  to 
mean  empty  space.    The  context  sufficiently  rebuts  this. 


248  MOSAIC  COSMOGONY. 

Nothing  is  said  of  herbs  and  trees  which  are  not 
serviceable  to  this  purpose ;  and  perhaps  it  may  be 
contended,  since  there  is  no  vegetable  production 
which  may  not  possil^ly  be  useful  to  man,  or  which  is 
not  preyed  upon  by  some  animal,  that  in  this  descrip- 
tion the  whole  terrestrial  flora  is  implied.  We  wish, 
however,  to  call  the  attention  of  the  reader  to  the 
fact,  that  trees  and  plants  destined  for  food  are  those 
which  are  particularly  singled  out  here  as  the  earliest 
productions  of  the  earth,  as  we  shall  have  occasion  to 
refer  to  this  again  presently. 

On  the  fourth  day,  the  two  great  lights — the  sun 
and  moon  —  are  made  (Heb.  hasaJi),  and  set  in  the  fir- 
mament of  heaven  to  give  light  to  the  earth,  but  more 
particularly  to  serve  as  the  means  of  measuring  time, 
and  of  marking  out  years,  days,  and  seasons.  This  is 
the  most  prominent  office  assigned  to  them  (ver.  14- 
18).  The  formation  of  the  stars  is  mentioned  in  the 
most  cursory  manner.  It  is  not  said  out  of  what  ma- 
terials all  these  bodies  were  made  ;  and  whether  the 
writer  regarded  them  as  already  existing  and  only 
waiting  to  have  a  proper  place  assigned  them,  may  be 
open  to  question.  At  any  rate,  their  allotted  recep- 
tacle —  the  firmament  —  was  not  made  until  the  sec- 
ond day,  nor  were  they  set  in  it  until  the  fourth  ; 
vegetation,  be  it  observed,  having  already  commenced 
on  the  third,  and  therefore  independently  of  the 
warming  influence  of  the  sun. 

On  the  fifth  day,  the  waters  are  called  into  pro- 
ductive activity,  and  bring  forth  fishes  and  marine 
animals,  as  also  the  birds  of  the  air.*  It  is  also  said 
that  God  created  or  formed  (^bara)  great  whales,  and 


*  In  the  second  narrative  of  creation,  in  which  no  distinction  of  days  is 
made,  the  birds  are  said  to  have  been  formed  out  of  the  ground.    Gen.  ii. 


MOSAIC   COSMOGONY.  249 

other  creatures  of  the  water  and  air.  On  the  sixth 
day,  the  earth  brings  forth  living  creatures,  cattle,  and 
reptiles,  and  also  "  the  beast  of  the  field  ;  "  that  is,  the 
wild  beasts.  And  here  also  it  is  added  that  God  made 
Qiasali)  these  creatures  after  their  several  kinds.  The 
formation  of  man  is  distinguished  by  a  variation  of 
the  creative  fiat,  "  Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after 
our  likeness."  Accordingly,  man  is  made  and  formed 
(bara)  in  the  image  and  likeness  of  God,  —  a  phrase 
which  has  been  explained  away  to  mean  merely  "  per- 
fect, sinless ; "  although  the  Pentateuch  abounds  in 
passages  showing  that  the  Hebrews  contemplated  the 
Divine  Being  in  the  visible  form  of  a  man.*  Modern 
spiritualism  has  so  entirely  banished  this  idea,  that 
probably  many  may  not  without  an  effort  be  able  to 
accept  the  plain  language  of  the  Hebrew  writer  in  its 
obvious  sense  in  the  twenty-sixth  verse  of  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis  ;  though  they  will  have  no  difii- 
culty  in  doing  so  in  the  third  verse  of  the  fifth  chap- 
ter, where  the  same  words,  "  image  "  and  "  likeness," 
are  used.  Man  is  said  to  have  been  created  male  and 
female  ;  and  the  narrative  contains  nothmg  to  show 
that  a  single  pair  only  is  intended.!  He  is  com- 
manded to  increase  and  multiply,  and  to  assume 
dominion  over  all  the  other  tribes  of  beings.  The 
whole  of  the  works  of  creation  being  complete,  God 
gives  to  man,  beast,  fowl,  and  creeping  thing,  the 
vegetable  productions  of  the  earth  as  their  appointed ' 
food.  And  when  we  compare  the  verses  (Gen.  i.  29, 
30)  with  Gen.  ix.  3,  in  wliich,  after  the  flood,  animals 


*  See  particularly  the  narrative  in  Gen.  xviii. 

t  It  is  in  the  second  narrative  of  creation  that  the  formation  of  a  single 
man  out  of  the  dust  of  the  earth  is  described,  and  the  omission  to  create  a 
female  at  the  same  time  is  stated  to  have  been  repaired  by  the  subsequent 
formation  of  one  from  the  side  of  the  man. 

11* 


250  MOSAIC   COSMOGONY. 

are  given  to  man  for  food  in  addition  to  the  green 
herb,  it  is  difficult  not  to  come  to  the  conchision, 
that,  in  the  earliest  view  taken  of  creation,  men  and 
animals  were  supposed  to  have  been,  in  their  original 
condition,  not  carnivorous.  It  is  needless  to  say  that 
this  has  been  for  the  most  part  the  construction  put 
upon  the  words  of  the  Mosaic  writer,  until  a  clear 
perception  of  the  creative  design  which  destined  the 
tiger  and  lion  for  flesh-eaters,  and  latterly  the  geologi- 
cal proof  of  flesh-eating  monsters  having  existed  among 
the  pre- Adamite  inhabitants  of  the  globe,  rendered  it 
necessary  to  ignore  this  meaning. 

The  first,  second,  and  third  verses  of  the  second 
chapter  of  Genesis,  which  have  been  most  absurdly 
divided  from  their  context,  conclude  the  narrative.* 
On  the  seventh  day,  God  rests  from  his  work,  and 
blesses  the  day  of  rest,  a  fact  which  is  referred  to  in 
the  commandment  given  from  Sinai,  as  the  ground 
of  the  observance  of  sabbatic  rest  imposed  upon  the 
Hebrews. 

Remarkable  as  this  narrative  is  for  simple  grand- 
eur, it  has  nothing  in  it  which  can  be  properly  called 
poetical.  It  bears  on  its  face  no  trace  of  mystical  or 
symbolical  meaning.  Things  are  called  by  their  right 
names  with  a  certain  scientific  exactness  widely  differ- 
ent from  the  imaginative  cosmogonies  of  the  Greeks, 
in  which  the  powers  and  phenomena  of  nature  are 
invested  with  personality,  and  the  passions  and  quali- 
ties of  men  are  represented  as  individual  existences. 

The  circumstances  related  in  the  second  narrative 
of  creation  are,  indeed,  such  as  to  give  at  least  some 


*  The  coTTimon  arrangement  of  the  Bible  in  chapters  is  of  comparatively 
modern  orif^in,  and  is  admitted,  on  all  hands,  to  have  no  authority  or  philo- 
logical -worth  whatever.  In  many  cases  the  division  is  most  preposterous, 
and  iuterfei-es  greatly  with  an  intelligent  perusal  of  the  text. 


MOSAIC  COSMOGONY.  251 

ground  for  the  supposition  that  a  mystical  interpre- 
tation was  intended  to  be  given  to  it.  But  this  is  far 
from  being  the  case  with  the  first  narrative,  in  which 
none  but  a  professed  mystifier  of  the  school  of  Philo 
could  see  anything  but  a  plain  statement  of  facts. 
There  can  be  httle  reasonable  dispute,  then,  as  to  the 
sense  in  which  the  Mosaic  narrative  was  taken  by 
those  who  first  heard  it ;  nor  is  it  indeed  disputed,  that 
for  centuries,  putting  apart  the  Philonic  mysticism 
(which,  after  all,  did  not  exclude  a  primary  sense),  its 
words  have  been  received  in  their  genuine  and  natural 
meaning.  That  tliis  meaning  is,  prima  facie^  one 
wholly  adverse  to  the  present  astronomical  and  geolog- 
ical views  of  the  universe  is  evident  enough.  There 
is  not  a  mere  difference  through  deficiency.  It  can- 
not be  correctly  said  that  the  Mosaic  writer  simply 
leaves  out  details  which  modern  science  supplies,  and 
that,  therefore,  the  inconsistency  is  not  a  real,  but 
only  an  apparent  one.  It  is  manifest  that  the  whole 
account  is  given  from  a  different  point  of  view  from 
that  which  we  now  unavoidably  take ;  that  the  order 
of  things,  as  we  now  know  them  to  be,  is  to  a  great 
extent  reversed,  although  here  and  there  we  may  pick 
out  some  general  analogies,  and  points  of  resemblance. 
Can  we  say  that  the  Ptolemaic  system  of  astronomy  is 
not  at  variance  with  modern  science,  because  it  repre- 
sents with  a  certain  degree  of  correctness  some  of  the 
apparent  motions  of  the  heavenly  bodies  ? 

The  task  which  sundry  modern  writers  have  imposed 
upon  themselves  is  to  prove  that  the  Mosaic  narrative, 
however  apparently  at  variance  with  our  knowledge, 
is  essentially  and  in  fact  true,  although  never  under- 
stood properly  until  modern  science  supplied  the  neces- 
sary commentary  and  explanation. 


252  MOSAIC  COSMOGONY. 

Two  modes  of  conciliation  have  been  propounded 
which  have  enjoyed  considerable  popularity,  and  to 
these  two  we  shall  confine  our  attention. 

The  first  is  that  originally  brought  into  vogue  by 
Chalmers,  and  adopted  by  the  late  Dr.  Buckland  in 
his  Bridge  water  Treatise,  and  wdiich  is  probably  still 
received  by  many  as  a  sufficient  solution  of  all  diffi- 
culties. Dr.  Buckland's  treatment  of  the  case  may 
be  taken  as  a  fair  specimen  of  the  line  of  argument 
adopted  ;  and  it  shall  be  given  in  his  own  words  :  — 

"  The  word  hegmning''  he  says,  "  as  applied  by  Moses  in  the 
first  verse  of  the  book  of  Genesis,  expresses  an  undefined  period  of 
time,  which  was  antecedent  to  the  last  great  change  that  affected 
the  surface  of  the  earth,  and  to  the  creation  of  its  present  animal 
and  vegetable  inhabitants,  during  which  period  a  long  series  of 
operations  may  have  been  going  on  ;  which,  as  they  are  wholly 
unconnected  with  the  history  of  the  human  race,  are  passed  over 
in  silence  by  the  sacred  historian,  whose  only  concern  was  barely 
to  state,  that  the  matter  of  the  universe  is  not  eternal  and  self- 
existent,  but  was  originally  created  by  the  power  of  the  Almighty." 
—  "  The  Mosaic  narrative  commences  with  a  declaration,  that  '  in 
the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth.'  These  few 
first  words  of  Genesis  may  be  fairly  appealed  to  by  the  geologist 
as  containing  a  brief  statement  of  the  creation  of  the  material 
elements,  at  a  time  distinctly  preceding  the  operations  of  the  first 
day.  It  is  nowhere  affirmed  that  God  created  the  heaven  and  the 
earth  in  the  fi7'st  dag,  but  in  the  beginning:  this  beginning  may 
have  been  an  epoch  at  an  unmeasured  distance,  followed  by 
periods  of  undefined  duration,  during  which  all  the  physical  opera- 
tions disclosed  by  geology  were  going  on. 

"  The  first  verse  of  Genesis,  therefore,  seems  explicitly  to  assert 
the  creation  of  the  universe ;  the  heaven,  including  the  sidereal 
systems ;  and  the  earth,  more  especially  specifying  our  own  planet, 
as  the  subsequent  scene  of  the  operations  of  the  six  days  about  to 
be  described.  No  information  is  given  as  to  events  which  may 
have  occurred  upon  this  earth,  unconnected  with  the  history  of 
man  between  the  creation  of  its  component  matter  recorded  in  the 
first  verse,  and  the  era  at  which  its  history  is  resumed  in  the  second 
verse ;  nor  is  any  limit  fixed  to  the  time  during  which  these  inter- 
mediate events  may  have  been  going  on :  millions  of  millions  of 
years  may  have  occupied  the  indefinite  interval,  between  the  be- 
ginning in  which  God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth,  and  the 
evening  or  commencement  of  the  first  day  of  the  Mosaic  narrative. 

"  The  second  verse  may  describe  the  condition  of  the  earth  on 
the  evenin<T^  of  this  first  day ;  for,  in  the  Jewish  mode  of  computa- 


MOSAIC   COSMOGONY.  253 

tion  used  by  Moses,  each  day  is  reckoned  from  the  beginning  of 
one  evening  to  the  beginning  of  another  evening.  This  first  even- 
ing may  be  considered  as  the  termination  of  the  indefinite  time 
which  followed  the  primeval  creation  announced  in  the  first  verse, 
and  as  the  commencement  of  the  first  of  the  six  succeeding  days 
in  which  the  earth  was  to  be  filled  up,  and  peopled  in  a  manner  fit 
for  the  reception  of  mankind.  AVe  have,  in  this  second  verse, 
a  distinct  mention  of  earth  and  waters,  as  already  existing,  and 
involved  in  darkness :  their  condition  also  is  described  as  a  state 
of  confusion  and  emptiness  (tohu  bohu)  ;  words  which  are  usually 
interpreted  by  the  vague  and  indefinite  Greek  term  "  chaos,"  and 
which  may  be  geologically  considered  as  designating  the  wreck 
and  ruins  of  a  former  world.  At  this  intermediate  point  of  time, 
the  preceding  undefined  geological  periods  had  terminated,  a  new 
series  of  events  commenced,  and  the  work  of  the  first  morning  of 
this  new  creation  was  the  calling  forth  of  light  from  a  temporary 
darkness  which  had  overspread  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  earth." 

With  regard  to  the  formation  of  the  sun  and  moon, 
Dr.  Buckland  observes,  p.  27, — 

"  We  are  not  told  that  the  substance  of  the  sun  and  moon  was 
first  called  into  existence  on  the  fourth  day.  The  text  may  equally 
imply  that  these  bodies  were  then  prepared  and  appointed  to  cer- 
tain offices,  of  high  importance  to  mankind,  —  '  to  give  light  upon 
the  earth,  and  to  rule  over  the  day  and  over  the  night ;  to  be  for 
signs,  and  for  seasons,  and  for  days,  and  for  years.'  The  fact  of 
their  creation  had  been  stated  before  in  the  first  verse." 

The  question  of  the  meaning  of  the  word  bara, 
"  create,"  has  been  previously  touched  upon  :  it  has 
been  acknowledged  by  good  critics  that  it  does  not  of 
itself  necessarily  imply  "  to  make  out  of  nothing," 
upon  the  simple  ground  that  it  is  found  used  in  cases 
where  such  a  meaning  would  be  inapplicable.  But 
the  difficulty  of  giving  to  it  the  interpretation  con- 
tended for  by  Dr.  Buckland,  and  of  itniting  with  this 
the  assumption  of  a  six  days'  creation,  such  as  that 
described  in  Grcnesis,  at  a  comparatively  recent  period, 
lies  in  this,  that  the  heaven  itself  is  distinctly  said  to 
have  been  formed  by  the  division  of  the  waters  on  the 
second  day.  Consequently,  during  the  indefinite  ages 
which  elapsed  from  the  primal  creation  of  matter 


254  MOSAIC   COSMOGONY. 

until  the  first  Mosaic  day  of  creation,  there  was  no 
sky,  no  local  habitation  for  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars, 
even  supposing  those  bodies  to  have  been  included  in 
the  original  material.  Dr.  Buckland  does  not  touch 
this  obvious  difficulty,  without  which  his  argument, 
that  the  sun  and  moon  might  have  been  contemplated 
as  pre-existing,  although  they  are  not  stated  to  have 
been  set  in  the  heaven  until  the  fourth  day,  is  of  no 
value  at  all. 

Dr.  Buckland  appears  to  assume,  that,  when  it  is 
said  that  the  heaven  and  the  earth  were  created  in  the 
beginning,  it  is  to  be  understood  that  they  were  cre- 
ated in  their  present  form,  and  state  of  completeness  ; 
the  heaven  raised  above  the  earth  as  we  see  it,  or 
seem  to  see  it,  now.  This  is  the  fallacy  of  his  argu- 
ment. The  circumstantial  description  of  the  framing 
of  the  heaven  out  of  the  waters  proves  that  the  words 
"  heaven  and  earth,"  in  the  first  verse,  must  be  taken 
either  proleptically,  as  a  general  expression  for  the 
universe,  the  matter  of  the  universe  in  its  crude  and 
unformed  shape  ;  or  else  the  word  bara  must  mean 
"  formed,"  jiot  "  created  ;  "  the  writer  intending  to 
say,  "  God  formed  the  heaven  and  earth  in  manner 
following;"  in  which  case,  "  heaven  "  is  used  in  its 
distinct  and  proper  sense.  But  these  two  senses  can- 
not be  united  in  the  manner  covertly  assumed  in  Dr. 
Backland's  argument. 

Having,  however,  thus  endeavored  to  make  out  that 
the  Mosaic  account  does  not  negative  the  idea  that  the 
sun,  moon,  and  stars  had  "  been  created  at  the  indefi- 
nitely distant  time  designated  by  the  word  beg-in- 
ning^^^  he  is  reduced  to  describe  the  primeval  darkness 
of  the  first  day  as  "  a  temporary  darkness,  produced 
by  an  accumulation  of  dense  vapors  upon  the  face  of 


MOSAIC   COSMOGONY.  255 

the  deep."  —  ^^  An  incipient  dispersion  of  these  vapors 
may  have  readmitted  hght  to  the  earth,  upon  the  first 
day,  whilst  the  exciting  cause  of  light  was  obscured  ; 
and  the  further  purification  of  the  atmosphere  upon 
the  fourth  day  may  have  caused  the  sun  and  moon 
and  stars  to  reappear  in  the  firmament  of  heaven,  to 
assume  their  new  relations  to  the  newly  modified  earth 
and  to  the  human  race." 

It  is  needless  to  discuss  the  scientific  probability  of 
this  hypothesis  ;  but  the  violence  done  to  the  grand 
and  simple  words  of  the  Hebrew  writer  must  strike 
every  mind.  "  And  God  said  let  there  be  light ;  and 
there  was  light.  And  God  saw  the  light  that  it  was 
good ;  and  God  divided  the  light  from  the  darkness. 
And  God  called  the  light  Day,  and  darkness  called  he 
Night ;  and  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the 
first  day."  Can  any  one  sensible  of  the  value  of  words 
suppose  that  nothing  more  is  here  described,  or  in- 
tended to  be  described,  than  the  partial  clearing  away 
of  a  fog?  Can  such  a  manifestation  of  light  have 
been  dignified  by  the  appellation  of  Day  ?  Is  not  this 
reducing  the  noble  description  which  has  been  the 
admiration  of  ages  to  a  pitiful  caput  mortuum  of  empty 
verbiage  ? 

What  were  the  neiv  relations  which  the  heavenly 
bodies,  according  to  Dr.  Buckland's  view,  assumed  to 
the  newly  modified  earth  and  to  the  human  race  ? 
They  had,  as  we  well  know,  marked  out  seasons,  days, 
and  years,  and  had  given  light  for  ages  before  to  the 
earth,  and  to  the  animals  which  preceded  man  as  its 
inhabitants,  as  is  shown,  Dr.  Buckland  admits,  by  the 
eyes  of  fossil  animals,  —  optical  instruments  of  the 
same  construction  as  those  of  the  animals  of  our  days, 
—  and  also  by  the  existence  of  vegetables  in  the  early 


256  MOSAIC   COSMOGONY. 

world  ;  to  the  development  of  which,  light  must  have 
been  as  essential  then  as  now. 

The  hypothesis  adopted  by  Dr.  Buckland  was  first 
promulgated  at  a  time  when  the  gradual  and  regular 
formation  of  the  earth's  strata  was  not  seen  or  admitted 
so  clearly  as  it  is  now.  Geologists  were  more  disposed 
to  believe  in  great  catastrophes  and  sudden  breaks. 
Buckland's  theory  supposes,  that,  previous  to  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  present  races  of  animals  and  vegeta- 
bles, there  was  a  great  gap  in  the  globe's  history ; 
that  the  earth  was  completely  depopulated,  as  well  of 
marine  as  land  animals  ;  and  that  the  creation  of  all 
existing  plants  and  animals  was  coeval  with  that  of 
man.  This  theory  is  by  no  means  supported  by  geo- 
logical phenomena ;  and  is,  we  suppose,  now  rejected 
by  all  geologists  whose  authority  is  valuable.  Thus 
writes  Hugh  Miller  in  1857  :  — 

"  I  certainly  did  once  believe,  with  Chalmers  and  -with  Buck- 
land,  that  the  six  days  were  simply  natural  days  of  twenty-four 
hours  each ;  that  they  had  comprised  the  entire  work  of  the  exist- 
ing creation  ;  and  that  the  latest  of  the  geologic  ages  was  separated 
by  a  great  chaotic  gap  from  our  own.  My  labors  at  the  time,  as  a 
practical  geologist,  had  been  very  much  restricted  to  the  palaeozoic 
and  secondary  rocks,  more  especially  to  the  old  red  and  carbonif- 
erous systems  of  the  one  division,  and  the  oolitic  system  of  the 
other ;  and  the  long-extinct  organisms  which  I  found  in  them  cer- 
tainly did  not  conflict  with  the  view  of  Chalmers.  All  I  found 
necessary  at  the  time  to  the  work  of  reconciliation  was  some  scheme 
that  would  permit  me  to  assign  to  the  eartli  a  high  antiquity,  and 
to  regard  it  as  the  scene  of  many  succeeding  creations.  During 
the  last  nine  years,  however,  I  have  spent  a  few  weeks  every 
autumn  in  exploring  the  late  formations,  and  acquainting  myself 
with  their  particular  organisms.  I  have  traced  them  upwards  from 
the  raised  beaches  and  old  coast  lines  of  the  human  period,  to  the 
brick  clays,  Clyde  beds,  and  drift  and  bowlder  deposits,  of  the  Ple- 
istocene era ;  and  again  from  them,  witli  the  help  of  museums  and 
collections,  up  through  the  mammaliferous  crag  of  England  to  its 
red  and  coral  crags  :  and  the  conclusion  at  which  I  have  been  com- 
pelled to  arrive  is,  that,  for  many  long  ages  ere  man  was  ushered 
into  being,  not  a  few  of  his  humbler  contemporaries  of  the  fields 
and  woods  enjoyed  life  in  their  present  haunts ;  and  that,  for 


MOSAIC   COSMOGONY.  257 

thousands  of  years  anterior  to  even  tlieir  appearance,  many  of  tlie 
existing  mollusks  lived  in  our  seas.  That  daij  during  which  the 
present  creation  came  into  being,  and  in  which  God,  when  he  had 
made  '  the  beast  of  the  earth  after  his  kind,  and  the  cattle  after 
their  kind,'  at  length  terminated  the  work  by  moulding  a  creature 
in  his  own  image,  to  whom  he  gave  dominion  over  them  all,  was 
not  a  brief  period  of  a  few  hours'  duration,  but  extended  over, 
mayhap,  millenniums  of  centuries.  No  blank  chaotic  gap  of  death 
and  darkness  separated  the  creation  to  which  man  belongs  from 
that  of  the  old  extinct  elephant,  hippopotamus,  and  hyena ;  for 
familiar  animals  —  such  as  the  red  deer,  the  roe,  the  fox,  the  wild- 
cat, and  the  badger  —  lived  throughout  the  period  which  connected 
their  time  with  our  own ;  and  so  I  have  been  compelled  to  hold, 
that  the  days  of  creation  were  not  natural  but  prophetic  days,  and 
stretched  far  back  into  the  bygone  eternity."  * 

Hugh  Miller  will  be  admitted  by  many  as  a  compe- 
tent witness  to  the  nntenability  of  the  theory  of  Chal- 
mers and  Buckland  on  mere  geological  grounds.  He 
had,  indeed,  a  theory  of  his  own  to  propose,  which  we 
shall  presently  consider ;  but  we  may  take  his  word 
that  it  was  not  without  the  compulsion  of  what  he 
considered  irresistible  evidence  that  he  relinquished 
a  view  which  would  have  saved  him  infinite  time  and 
labor,  could  he  have  adhered  to  it. 

But  whether  contemplated  from  a  geological  point 
of  view,  or  whether  from  a  philological  one,  —  that  is, 
with  reference  to  the  value  of  words,  the  use  of  lan- 
guage, and  the  ordinary  rules  which  govern  writers 
whose  object  it  is  to  make  themselves  understood  by 
those  to  whom  their  works  are  immediately  addressed, 
— the  interpretation  proposed  by  Buckland  to  be  given 
to  the  Mosaic  description  will  not  bear  a  moment's 
serious  discussion.  It  is  plain,  from  the  whole  tenor 
of  the  narrative,  that  the  writer  contemplated  ]io  such 
representation  as  that  suggested  ;  nor  could  any  such 
idea  have  entered  into  the  minds  of  those  to  whom 
the  account  was  first  given.     Dr.  Buckland  endeavors 

*  Testimony  of  the  Eocks,  p.  10. 


258  MOSAIC  COSMOGONY. 

to  make  out  that  we  have  here  simply  a  case  of  lead- 
ing out  facts  which  did  not  particularly  concern  the 
writer's  purpose,  so  that  he  gave  an  account  true  so 
far  as  it  went,  though  imperfect. 

"  We  may  fairly  ask,"  he  argues,  "  of  those  persons  who  consider 
physical  science  a  fit  subject  for  revelation,  what  point  they  can 
imagine,  short  of  a  communication  of  Omniscience,  at  which  such 
a  revelation  might  have  stopped  without  imperfections  of  omission, 
less  in  degree,  but  similar  in  kind,  to  that  which  they  impute  to 
the  existing  narrative  of  Moses.  A  revelation  of  so  much  only  of 
astronomy  as  was  known  to  Copernicus  would  have  seemed  imper- 
fect after  the  discoveries  of  Newton ;  and  a  revelation  of  the  sci- 
ence of  Newton  would  have  appeared  defective  to  La  Place.  A 
revelation  of  all  the  chemical  knowledge  of  the  eighteenth  century 
would  have  been  as  deficient,  in  comparison  with  the  information 
of  the  present  day,  as  what  is  now  known  in  this  science  will  prob- 
ably appear  before  the  termination  of  another  age.  In  the  whole 
circle  of  sciences,  there  is  not  one  to  which  this  argument  may  not 
be  extended,  until  we  should  require  from  revelation  a  full  devel- 
opment of  all  the  mysterious  agencies  that  uphold  the  mechanism 
of  the  material  world." 

Buckland's  question  is  quite  inapplicable  to  the  real 
difficulty ;  which  is,  not  that  circumstantial  details  are 
omitted,  —  that  might  reasonably  be  expected,  —  but 
that  what  is  told  is  told  so  as  to  convey  to  ordinary 
apprehensions  an  impression  at  variance  with  facts. 
We  are,  indeed,  told  that  certain  writers  of  antiquity 
had  already  anticipated  the  hypothesis  of  the  geolo- 
gist ;  and  two  of  the  Christian  Fathers  (Augustine  and 
Episcopius)  are  referred  to  as  having  actually  held 
that  a  wide  interval  elapsed  between  the  first  act  of 
creation  mentioned  in  the  Mosaic  account,  and  the 
commencement  of  the  six  days'  work.*  If,  however, 
they  arrived  at  such  a  conclusion,  it  was  simply  be- 
cause, like  the  modern  geologist,  they  had  theories  of 
their  own  to  support,  which  led  them  to  make  some- 
what similar  hypotheses. 

*  See  Dr.  Pusey's  note,  —  Buckland's  Bridgewater  Treatise,  pp.  24,  25. 


MOSAIC   COSMOGONY.  259 

"  After  all,"  says  Buckland,  "  it  should  be  recol- 
lected that  the  question  is  not  respecting  the  correct- 
ness of  the  Mosaic  narrative,  but  of  our  interpretation 
of  it ;  "  a  proposition  which  can  hardly  be  sufficiently 
reprobated.  Such  a  doctrine,  carried  out  unreservedly, 
strikes  at  the  root  of  critical  morality.  It  may,  indeed, 
be  sometimes  possible  to  give  two  or  three  different 
inter^^retations  to  one  and  the  same  passage,  even  in  a 
modern  and  familiar  tongue  ;  in  which  case,  this  may 
arise  from  the  unskilfulness  of  the  writer  or  speaker 
who  has  failed  clearly  to  express  his  thought.  In  a 
dead  or  foreign  language,  the  difficulty  may  arise  from 
our  own  want  of  familiarity  with  its  forms  of  speech  ; 
or,  in  an  ancient  book,  we  may  be  puzzled  by  allusions, 
and  modes  of  thought,  the  key  to  which  has  been  lost. 
But  it  is  no  part  of  the  commentator's  or  interpreter's 
business  to  introduce  obscurity,  or  find  difficulties 
where  none  exist ;  and  it  cannot  be  pretended,  that, 
taking  it  as  a  question  of  the  use  of  words  to  express 
thoughts,  there  are  any  peculiar  difficulties  about 
understanding  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  whether 
in  its  original  Hebrew,  or  in  our  common  translation, 
which  represents  the  original  with  all  necessary  exact- 
ness. The  difficulties  arise  for  the  first  time  when  we 
seek  to  import  a  meaning  into  the  language  which  it 
certainly  never  could  have  conveyed  to  those  to  whom 
it  was  originally  addressed.  Unless  we  go  the  whole 
length  of  supposing  the  simple  account  of  the  Hebrew 
cosmogonist  to  be  a  series  of  awkward  equivocations, 
in  which  he  attempted  to  give  a  representation  widely 
difierent  from  the  facts,  yet  without  trespassing 
against  literal  truth,  we  can  find  no  difficulty  in  inter- 
preting his  words.  Although  language  may  be,  and 
often  has  been,  used  for  the  purpose,  not  of  express- 


260  MOSAIC   COSMOGONY. 

ing,  but  concealing  thouglit,  no  such  charge  can  fairly 
be  laid  against  the  Hebrew  writer. 

"  It  should  be  borne  in  mind,"  says  Dr.  Buckland, 
"  that  the  object  of  the  account  was,  not  to  state 
in  ivhat  inamie?',  but  hi/  ivhom,  the  world  was  made." 
Every  one  must  see  that  this  is  an  unfounded  asser- 
tion, inasmuch  as  the  greater  part  of  the  narrative 
consists  in  a  minute  and  orderly  description  of  the 
manner  in  which  things  were  made.  We  can  know 
nothing  as  to  the  object  of  the  account,  except  from 
the  account  itself.  What  the  writer  meant  to  state  is 
just  that  which  he  has  stated,  for  all  that  we  can  know 
to  the  contrary.  Or  can  we  seriously  believe,  that,  if 
appealed  to  by  one  of  his  Hebrew  hearers  or  readers 
as  to  his  intention,  he  would  have  replied,  "  My  only 
object  in  what  I  have  written  is  to  inform  you  that 
God  made  the  world :  as  to  the  manner  of  his  doing 
it,  of  which  I  have  given  so  exact  an  account,  I  have 
no  intention  that  my  words  should  be  taken  in  their 
literal  meaning  "  ? 

We  come  then  to  this,  that,  if  we  sift  the  Mosaic 
narrative  of  all  definite  meaning,  and  only  allow  it  to 
be  the  expression  of  the  most  vague  generalities ;  if 
we  avow  that  it  admits  of  no  certain  interpretation,  of 
none  that  may  not  be  shifted  and  altered  as  often  as 
we  see  fit,  and  as  the  exigencies  of  geology  may 
require,  —  then  may  we  reconcile  it  with  what  science 
teaclies.  This  mode  of  dealing  with  the  subject  has 
been  broadly  advocated  by  a  recent  writer  of  mathe- 
matical eminence,  who  adopts  the  Bucklandian  hypoth- 
esis ;  a  passage  from  whose  work  we  shall  quote  :  *  — 


*  Scripture  and  Science  not  at  Variance.    By  J.  H.  Pratt,  M.  A.,  Arch- 
deacon of  Calcutta,  1869.     Third  edition,  p.  34. 


MOSAIC   COSMOGONY.  261 

"  The  Mosaic  account  of  tlie  six  days'  work  is  thus  harmonized 
by  some  :  On  the  first  day,  while  the  earth  was  '  without  form,  and 
void,'  the  result  of  a  previous  convulsion  in  nature,  '  and  darkness 
was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep,'  God  commanded  light  to  shine 
upon  the  earth.  This  may  have  been  effected  by  such  a  clearing 
of  the  thick  and  loaded  atmosphere,  as  to  allow  the  light  of  the 
sun  to  penetrate  its  mass  with  a  suffused  illumination,  sufficient  to 
dispel  the  total  darkness  which  had  prevailed,  but  proceeding  from 
a  source  not  yet  apparent  on  the  earth.  On  the  second  day,  a 
separation  took  place  in  the  thick  vapory  mass  which  lay  upon  the 
earth ;  dense  clouds  were  gathered  up  aloft,  and  separated  by  an 
expanse  from  the  waters  and  vapors  below.  On  the  third  day, 
these  lower  vapors,  or  fogs  and  mists,  which  hitherto  concealed 
the  earth,  were  condensed  and  gathered  with  the  other  waters  of 
the  earth  into  seas;  and  the  dry  land  appeared.  Then  grass  and 
herbs  began  to  grow.  On  the  fourth  day,  the  clouds  and  vapors 
so  rolled  into  separate  masses,  or  were  so  entirely  absorbed  into 
the  air  itself,  that  the  sun  shone  forth  in  all  its  brilliancy,  the 
visible  source  of  light  and  heat  to  the  renovated  earth,  while  the 
moon  and  stars  gave  light  by  night ;  and  God  appointed  them 
henceforth  for  signs,  and  for  seasons,  and  for  days,  and  for  years, 
to  his  creatures  whom  he  was  about  to  call  into  existence,  as  he 
afterwards  set  or  appointed  his  bow  in  the  clouds,  which  had 
appeared  ages  before,  to  be  a  sign  to  Noah  and  his  descendants. 
The  fifth  and  sixth  days'  work  needs  no  comment. 

"  According  to  this  explanation,  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis 
does  not  pretend  (as  has  been  generally  assumed)  to  be  a  cosmog- 
ony, or  an  account  of  the  original  creation  of  the  material  uni- 
verse. The  only  cosmogony  which  it  contains,  in  that  sense  at 
least,  is  confined  to  the  sublime  declaration  of  the  first  verse,  '  In 
the  beginning,  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth.'  The 
inspired  record,  thus  stepping  over  an  interval  of  indefinite  ages 
with  which  man  has  no  direct  concern,  proceeds  at  once  to  narrate 
the  events  preparatory  to  the  introduction  of  man  on  the  scene ; 
employing  phraseology  strictly  faithful  to  the  appearances  which 
would  have  met  the  eye  of  man,  could  he  have  been  a  spectator 
on  the  earth  of  what  passed  during  those  six  days.  All  this  has 
been  commonly  supposed  to  be  a  more  detailed'  account  of  the 
general  truth  announced  in  the  first  verse,  —  in  short,  a  cosmogony. 
Such  was  the  idea  of  Josephus :  such  probably  was  the  idea  of  our 
translators ;  for  their  version,  '  without  form,  and  void,'  points  to 
the  primeval  chaos,  out  of  which  all  things  were  then  supposed  to 
emerge  ;  and  these  words,  standing  in  limine,  have  tended,  perhaps 
more  than  anything  else,  to  foster  the  idea  of  a  cosmogon}'  in  the 
minds  of  general  readers  to  this  very  day. 

"  The  foregoing  explanation  many  have  now  adopted.  It  is  suf- 
ficient for  my  purpose,  if  it  be  a  possible  explanation,  and  if  it  meet 
the  difficulties  of  the  case.  That  it  is  possible  in  itself  is  plain 
from  the  fact  above  established,  that  the  Scriptures  wisely  speak 
on  natural  things  according  to  their  appearances  rather  than  their 


262  MOSAIC  COSMOGONY. 

phjsical  realities.  It  meets  the  difficulties  of  the  case,  because  all 
the  difficulties  hitherto  started  against  this  chapter  on  scientific 
grounds  proceeded  on  the  principle  that  it  is  a  cosmogony ;  which 
this  explanation  repudiates,  and  thus  disposes  of  the  difficulties. 
It  is,  therefore,  an  explanation  satisfactory  to  my  own  mind.  I 
may  be  tempted  to  regret  that  I  can  gain  no  certain  scientific 
information  from  Genesis  regarding  the  process  of  the  original  cre- 
ation ;  but  I  resist  the  temptation,  remembering  the  great  object 
for  Avhich  the  Scripture  was  given,  —  to  tell  man  of  his  origin  and 
fall,  and  to  draw  his  mind  to  his  Creator  and  Redeemer.  Scrip- 
ture was  not  designed  to  teach  us  natural  philosophy,  and  it  is 
vain  to  attempt  to  make  a  cosmogony  out  of  its  statements.  The 
Almighty  declares  himself  the  originator  of  all  things  ;  but  he  con- 
descends not  to  describe  the  process  or  the  laws  by  which  he 
worked.  All  this  he  leaves  for  reason  to  decipher  from  the  phe- 
nomena which  his  world  displays. 

"  This  explanation,  however,  1  do  not  wish  to  impose  on  Scrip- 
ture ;  and  am  fully  prepared  to  surrender  it  should  further  scientific 
discovery  suggest  another  better  fitted  to  meet  all  the  requirements 
of  the  case." 

We  venture  to  think  that  the  world  at  large  will 
continue  to  consider  the  account  in  the  first  chapter 
of  Genesis  to  be  a  cosmogony ;  but  as  it  is  here  ad- 
mitted that  it  does  not  describe  physical  realities,  but 
only  outward  appearances  (that  is,  gives  a  description 
false  in  fact,  and  one  which  can  teach  us  no  scientific 
truth  whatever),  it  seems  to  matter  little  what  we  call 
it.  If  its  description  of  the  events  of  the  six  days 
which  it  comprises  be  merely  one  of  appearances,  and 
not  of  realities,  it  can  teach  us  nothing  regarding 
them. 

Dissatisfied  with  the  scheme  of  conciliation  which 
has  been  discussed,  other  geologists  have  proposed 
to  give  an  entirely  mythical  or  enigmatical  sense  to 
the  Mosaic  narrative,  and  to  consider  the  creative 
days  described  as  vast  periods  of  time.  This  plan 
was  long  ago  suggested  ;  but  is  has  of  late  enjoyed  a 
high  degree  of  popularity  through  the  advocacy  of  the 
Scotch  geologist  Hugh  Miller,  an  extract  from  whose 
work  has  been  already  quoted.     Dr.  Buckland  gives 


MOSAIC   COSMOGONY.  263 

the  following  account  of  the  first  form  in  which  this 
theory  was  propounded,  and  of  the  grounds  upon 
which  he  rejected  it  in  favor  of  that  of  Chalmers :  *  — 

"  A  third  opinion  has  been  suggested  both  by  learned  theo- 
logians and  by  geologists,  and  on  grounds  independent  of  one 
another,  —  viz.  that  the  days  of  the  Mosaic  creation  need  not  be 
understood  to  imply  the  same  length  of  time  which  is  now  occu- 
pied by  a  single  revolution  of  the  globe,  but  successive  periods 
each  of  great  extent ;  and  it  has  been  asserted  that  the  order  of 
succession  of  the  organic  remains  of  a  former  world  accords  with 
the  order  of  creation  recorded  in  Genesis.  This  assertion,  though 
to  a  certain  degree  apparently  correct,  is  is  not  entirely  supported 
by  geological  facts,  since  it  appears  that  the  most  ancient  marine 
animals  occur  in  the  same  division  of  the  lowest  transition  strata 
with  the  earliest  remains  of  vegetables ;  so  that  the  evidence  of 
organic  remains,  as  far  as  it  goes,  shows  the  origin  of  plants  and 
animals  to  have  been  contemporaneous.  If  any  creation  of  vege- 
tables preceded  that  of  animals,  no  evidence  of  such  an  event  has 
yet  been  discovered  by  the  researches  of  geology.  Still  there  is,  I 
believe,  no  sound  critical  or  theological  objection  to  the  interpreta- 
tion of  the  word  '  day'  as  meaning  a  long  period." 

Archdeacon  Pratt  also  summarily  rejects  this  view 

as  untenable  :  f  — 

"  There  is  one  other  class  of  interpreters,  however,  with  whom 
I  find  it  impossible  to  agree  :  I  mean  those  who  take  the  six  days 
to  be  six  periods  of  unknown  indefinite  length.  This  is  the  prin- 
ciple of  interpretation  in  a  work  on  the  '  Creation  and  the  Fall,'  by 
the  Rev.  D.  Macdonald ;  also  in  ]Vh\  Hugh  Miller's  posthumous 
work,  the  '  Testimony  of  the  Rocks ; '  and  also  in  an  admirable 
treatise  on  the  '  Prae- Adamite  Earth  '  in  Dr.  Lardner's  '  Museum 
of  Science.'  In  this  last  it  is  the  more  surprising,  because  the 
successive  chapters  are  in  fact  an  accumulation  of  evidence  which 
points  the  other  way,  as  a  writer  in  the  '  Christian  Observer,' 
January  1858,  has  conclusively  shown.  The  late  M.  D'Orbigny 
has  demonstrated  in  his  '  Prodrome  de  Palceontologie,'  after  an 
elaborate  examination  of  vast  multitudes  of  fossils,  that  there  have 
been  at  least  twenty-nine  distinct  periods  of  animal  and  vegetable 
existence  ;  that  is,  twenty-nine  creations  separated  one  from  an- 
other by  catastrophes  which  have  swept  away  the  species  existing 
at  the  time,  with  a  very  few  solitary  exceptions,  never  exceeding 
one  and  a  half  per  cent  of  the  whole  number  discovered,  which 
have  either  survived  the  catastrophe,  or  have  been  erroneously 
designated.  But  not  a  single  species  of  the  preceding  period  sur- 
vived the  last  of  these  catastrophes ;  and  this  closed  the  Tertiary 

*  Bridgewater  Treatise,  p.  17. 

t  Science  and  Scripture  not  at  Variance,  p.  40,  note. 


264  MOSAIC   COSMOGONY. 

period  and  ushered  in  the  Human  period.  The  evidence  adduced 
by  M.  D'Orbigny  shoAvs  that  both  plants  and  animals  appeared  in 
every  one  of  those  twenty-nine  periods.  The  notion,  therefore, 
that  the  '  days '  of  Genesis  represent  periods  of  creation  from  the 
beginning  of  things  is  at  once  refuted.  The  parallel  is  destroyed 
both  in  the  number  of  the  periods  (thirty,  including  the  Azoic, 
instead  of  six),  and  also  in  the  character  of  the  things  created. 
No  argument  could  be  more  complete  ;  and  yet  the  writer  of  the 
*  Prae- Adamite  Earth,'  in  the  last  two  pages,  sums  up  his  lucid 
sketch  of  M.  D'Orbigny's  researches  by  referring  the  account  in 
the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  to  the  whole  creation  from  the  begin- 
ning of  all  things,  —  a  selection  of  epochs  being  made,  as  he  imag- 
ines, for  the  six  days  or  periods." 

In  tliis  trenchant  manner  do  theological  geologists 
overthrow  one  another's  theories.  However,  Hugh 
Miller  was  perfectly  aware  of  the  difficulty  involved 
in  his  view  of  the  question  ;  and  we  shall  endeavor 
to  show  the  reader  the  manner  in  which  he  deals 
with  it. 

He  begins  by  pointing  out,  that  the  families  of 
vegetables  and  animals  were  introduced  upon  earth 
as  nearly  as  possible  according  to  the  great  classes 
in  which  naturalists  have  arranged  the  modern  flora 
and  fauna.  According  to  the  arrangement  of  Lind- 
ley,  he  observes, — 

"  Commencing  at  the  bottom  of  the  scale,  we  find  the  thallogens, 
or  flowerless  plants,  which  lack  proper  stems  and  leaves,  —  a  class 
which  includes  all  the  alga?.  Next  succeed  the  acrogens,  or  flower- 
less  plants,  that  possess  both  stems  and  leaves,  —  such  as  the  ferns 
and  their  allies.  Next,  omitting  an  inconspicuous  class,  repre- 
sented by  but  a  few  parasitical  plants  incapable  of  preservation  as 
fossils,  come  the  endogens,  —  monocotyledonous  flowering  plants, 
that  include  the  palms,  the  Liliaceae,  and  several  other  families,  all 
characterized  by  the  parallel  venation  of  their  leaves.  Next,  omit- 
ting another  inconspicuous  tribe,  there  follows  a  very  important 
class,  the  gymnogens,  —  polycotyledonous  trees,  represented  by 
the  coniferse  and  cycadacea?.  And  last  of  all  come  the  dicotyle- 
donous exogens,  —  a  class  to  which  all  our  fruit  and  what  are 
known  as  our  forest  trees  belong,  with  a  vastly  preponderating 
majority  of  the  herbs  and  flowers  that  impart  fertility  and  beauty 
to  our  gardens  and  meadows." 

The   order   in  which   fossils   of  these  several  classes 


MOSAIC  COSMOGONY.  265 

appear  in  the  strata,  Hugh  Miller  states  to  be  as  fol- 
lows :  In  the  Lower  Silurian,  we  find  only  thallogens ; 
in  the  Upper  Silurian,  acrogens  are  added.  The  gjm- 
nogens  appear  rather  prematurely,  it  might  be  thought, 
in  the  old  red  sandstone,  the  endogens  (monocotyledo- 
nous)  coming  after  them  in  the  carboniferous  group. 
Dicotyledonous  exogens  enter  at  the  close  of  the 
oolitic  period,  and  come  to  their  greatest  develop- 
ment in  the  tertiary.  Again  :  the  animal  tribes  have 
been  introduced  in  an  order  closely  agreeing  with  the 
geological  divisions  established  by  Cuvier.  In  the 
Silurian  beds,  the  invertebrate  creatures  —  the  radiata, 
articulata,  and  mollusca  —  appear  simultaneously.  At 
the  close  of  the  period,  fishes,  the  lowest  of  the  ver- 
tebrata,  appear ;  before  the  old  red  sandstone  period 
had  passed  away,  reptiles  had  come  into  existence ; 
birds  and  the  marsupial  mammals  enter  in  the  oolitic 
period  ;  placental  mammals,  in  the  tertiary ;  and  man, 
last  of  all. 

Now,  these  facts  do  certainly  tally  to  some  extent 
with  the  Mosaic  account,  which  represents  fish  and 
fowl  as  having  been  produced  from  the  waters  on  the 
fifth  day,  reptiles  and  mammals  from  the  earth  on  the 
sixth,  and  man  as  made  last  of  all.  The  agreement, 
however,  is  far  from  exact,  as,  according  to  geological 
evidence,  reptiles  would  appear  to  have  existed  ages 
before  birds  and  mammals  ;  whereas  here  the  creation 
of  birds  is  attributed  to  the  fifth  day,  that  of  reptiles 
to  the  sixth.  There  remains,  moreover,  the  insuper- 
able difficulty  of  the  plants  and  trees  being  repre- 
sented as  made  on  the  third  day,  —  that  is,  more  than 
an  age  before  fishes  and  birds  ;  which  is  clearly  not 
the  case. 

Although,  therefore,  there  is  a  superficial  resem- 
12' 


266  MOSAIC   COSMOGONY. 

blance  in  the  Mosaic  account  to  that  of  the  geologists, 
it  is  evident  that  the  bare  theory,  that  a  "day"  means 
an  age  or  immense  geological  period,  might  be  made 
to  yield  some  rather  strange  results.  What  becomes 
of  the  evening  and  morning  of  which  each  day  is  said 
to  have  consisted  ?  Was  each  geologic  age  divided 
into  two  long  intervals,  one  all  darkness,  the  other  all 
light  ?  and,  if  so,  what  became  of  the  plants  and  trees 
created  in  the  third  day  or  period,  when  the  evening 
of  the  fourth  day  (the  evenings,  be  it  observed,  pre- 
cede the  mornings)  set  in  ?  They  must  have  passed 
through  half  a  seculum  of  total  darkness,  not  even 
cheered  by  that  dim  light  which  the  sun,  not  yet 
completely  manifested,  supplied  on  the  morning  of  the 
third  day.  Such  an  ordeal  would  have  completely 
destroyed  the  whole  vegetable  creation  ;  and  yet  we 
find  that  it  survived,  and  was  appointed  on  the  sixth 
day  as  the  food  of  man  and  animals.  In  fact,  we  need 
only  substitute  the  word  "period"  for  "  day"  in  the 
Mosaic  narrative  to  make  it  very  apparent  that  the 
writer  at  least  had  no  such  meaning,  nor  could  he 
have  conveyed  any  such  meaning  to  those  who  first 
heard  his  account  read. 

"  It  has  been  held,"  says  Hugh  Miller,  "  by  accom- 
plished philologists,  that  the  days  of  Mosaic  creation 
may  be  regarded,  without  doing  violence  to  the  He- 
brew language,  as  successive  periods  of  great  ex- 
tent."* We  do  not  believe  that  there  is  any  ground 
for  this  doctrine.  The  word  "  day  "  is  certainly  used 
occasionally,  in  particular  phrases,  in  an  indefinite 
manner,  not  only  in  Hebrew,  but  other  languages ; 
as,  for  instance,  Gen.  xxxix.  11,  "About  this  time," 

*  Testimony,  p.  133. 


MOSAIC   COSMOGONY.  267 

Heb.  literally,  "  about  this  day."  But  every  such 
phrase  explains  itself ;  and  not  only  philology,  but 
common  sense,  disclaims  the  notion,  that  when  "  day  " 
is  spoken  of  in  terms  like  those  in  the  first  chapter 
of  Genesis,  and  described  as  consisting  of  an  even- 
ing and  a  morning,  it  can  be  understood  to  mean  a 
seculum. 

Archdeacon  Pratt,  treating  on  the  sa,nie  subject, 
says  (p.  41,  note)  :  — 

"  Were  there  no  other  ground  of  objection  to  this  mode  of  inter- 
pretation, I  think  the  wording  of  the  fourth  commandment  is  clearly 
opposed  to  it.  Exod.  xx.  8  :  '  Remember  the  sabbath-day  to  keep 
it  holy.  9.  Six  days  shalt  thou  labor,  and  do  all  thy  work.  10.  But 
the  seventh  day  is  the  sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy  God  :  in  it  thou 
shalt  not  do  any  work,  —  thou,  nor  thy  son,  nor  thy  daughter,  thy 
man-servant,  nor  thy  maid-servant,  nor  thy  cattle,  nor  thy  strangeV 
that  is  within  thy  gates.  11.  For  in  six  days  the  Lord  made 
heaven  and  earth,  the  sea,  and  all  that  in  them  is,  and  rested  the 
seventh  day :  wherefore  the  Lord  blessed  the  sabbath-day,  and  hal- 
lowed it.' 

"  Is  it  not  a  harsh  and  forced  interpretation  to  suppose  that  the 
six  days  in  ver.  9  do  not  mean  the  same  as  the  six  days  in  ver.  11, 
but  that,  in  this  last  place,  they  mean  six  periods  ?  In  reading 
through  the  eleventh  verse,  it  is  extremely  difficult  to  believe  that 
the  seventh  day  is  a  long  period,  and  the  sabbath-day  an  ordinary 
day  ;  that  is,  that  the  same  word  '  day '  should  be  used  in  two  such 
totally  different  senses  in  the  same  short  sentence,  and  without  any 
explanation." 

Hugh  Miller  saw  the  difficulty  ;  but  he  endeavors  to 
escape  the  consequences  of  a  rigorous  application  of 
the  periodic  theory  by  modifying  it  in  a  peculiar,  and 
certainly  ingenious  manner. 

"  Waiving,"  he  says,  "  the  question  as  a  philological  one,  and 
simply  holding  with  Cuvier,  Parkinson,  and  Silliman,  that  each  of 
the  six  days  of  the  Mosaic  a(;count  in  the  first  chapter  were  what  is 
assuredly  meant  by  the  day  *  referred  to  in  the  second  (not  natural 


^  The  expression  (Gen.  ii.  4):  "In  the  day  that  the  Lord  God  created 
the  earth  and  heaven,"  to  which  Hugh  Miller  here  refers,  may  possibly 
mean  "  at  the  time  when;  "  meaning  a  week,  year,  or  other  limited  time. 
But  there  is  not  the  smallest  reason  for  understanding  it  to  mean  "  a  length- 
eraed  period,"  i.  e.  an  immense  lapse  of  time.    Such  a  construction  would  be 


268  MOSAIC   COSMOGONY. 

days,  but  lengthened  periods),  I  find  myself  called  on,  as  a  geolo- 
gist, to  account  for  but  three  out  of  the  six.  Of  the  period  during 
which  light  was  created  ;  of  the  period  during  which  a  firmament 
was  made  to  separate  the  Avaters  from  the  waters  ;  or  of  the  period 
during  which  the  two  great  lights  of  the  earth,  with  the  other  heav- 
enly bodies,  became  visible  from  the  earth's  surface,  —  we  need  ex- 
pect to  find  no  record  in  the  rocks.  Let  me,  however,  pause  for  a 
moment  to  remark  the  peculiar  character  of  the  language  in  which 
we  are  first  introduced,  in  the  Mosaic  narrative,  to  the  heavenly  bod- 
ies, —  sun,  moon,  and  stars.  The  moon,  though  absolutely  one  of  the 
smallest  lights  of  our  system,  is  described  as  secondary  and  subor- 
dinate to  only  its  greatest  light,  the  sun.  It  is  the  apparent,  then, 
not  the  actual,  which  we  find  in  the  passage  ;  what  seemed  to  be, 
not  Avhat  was :  and,  as  it  was  merely  what  appeared  to  be  greatest 
that  was  described  as  greatest,  on  what  grounds  are  we  to  hold  that 
it  may  not  also  have  been  what  appeared  at  the  time  to  be  made 
that  has  been  described  as  made  ?  The  sun,  moon,  and  stars  may 
have  been  created  long  before ;  though  it  was  not  until  this  fourth 
day  of  creation  that  they  became  visible  from  the  earth's  surface."  * 

The  theory  founded  upon  this  hint  is,  that  the 
Hebrew  writer  did  not  state  facts,  but  merely  cer- 
tain appearances,  and  those  not  of  things  which  really 
happened,  as  assumed  in  the  explanation  adopted  by 
Archdeacon  Pratt,  but  of  certain  occurrences  which 
were  presented  to  him  in  a  vision,  and  that  this  vision 
greatly  deceived  him  as  to  what  he  seemed  to  see  ; 
and  thus,  in  effect,  the  real  discrepancy  of  the  nar- 
rative with  facts  is  admitted.  He  had,  in  all,  seven 
visions,  to  each  of  which  he  attributed  the  duration 
of  a  day  ;  although,  indeed,  each  picture  presented  to 
him  the  earth  during  seven  long  and  distinctly  marked 
epochs.  While,  on  the  one  hand,  this  supposition  ad- 
mits all  desirable  latitude  for  mistakes  and  misrepre- 
sentations ;  Hugh  Miller,  on  the  other  hand,  endeavors 
to  show  that  a  substantial  agreement  with  the  truth 


inadmissible  in  the  Hebrew  or  any  other  language.  It  is  difficult  to  acquit 
Hugh  IMiller  of  an  equivocation  here.  In  real  truth,  the  second  narrative 
is,  as  we  have  before  observed,  of  distinct  origin  from  the  first;  and  we 
incline  to  the  belief,  that,  iu  this  case  also,  "  day  "  is  to  be  taken  in  its 
proper  signification. 
*  Testimony,  p.  134. 


MOSAIC   COSMOGONY.  269 

exists,  and  to  give  sufficient  reason  for  the  mistakes. 
We  must  let  him  speak  for  himself :  — 

"  The  geologist,  in  his  attempts  to  collate  the  divine  with  the 
geologic  record,  has,  I  repeat,  only  three  of  the  six  periods  of  crea- 
tion to  account  for,*  —  the  period  of  plants,  the  period  of  gi-eat 
sea-monsters  and  creeping  things,  and  the  period  of  cattle  and 
beasts  of  the  earth.  He  is  called  on  to  question  his  systems  and 
formations  regarding  the  remains  of  these  three  great  periods, 
and  of  them  only.  And  the  question  once  fairly  stated,  what,  I 
ask,  is  the  reply '?  All  geologists  agree  in  holding  that  the  vast 
geological  scale  naturally  divides  into  three  great  parts.  There 
are  many  lesser  divisions,  —  divisions  into  systems,  formations, 
deposits,  beds,  strata ;  but  the  master  divisions,  in  each  of  which 
we  find  a  type  of  life  so  unlike  that  of  the  others,  that  even  the 
unpractised  eye  can  detect  the  difference,  are  simply  three,  —  the 
palseozoic,  or  oldest  fossiliferous  division  ;  the  secondary,  or  middle 
fossiliferous  division  ;  and  the  tertiary,  or  latest  fossiliferous  divis- 
ion. In  the  first,  or  pala30zoic  division,  we  find  corals,  crustaceans, 
mollusks,  fishes ;  and,  in  its  later  formations,  a  few  reptiles.  But 
none  of  these  classes  give  its  leading  character  to  the  palaeozoic  : 
they  do  not  constitute  its  prominent  feature,  or  render  it  more  re- 
markable as  a  scene  of  life  than  any  of  the  divisions  which  followed. 
That  which  chiefly  distinguished  the  palaeozoic  from  the  secondary 
and  tertiary  periods  was  its  gorgeous  flora.  It  vv^as  emphatically 
the  period  of  plants,  — '  of  herbs  yielding  seed  after  their  kind.'  In 
no  other  age  did  the  world  ever  witness  such  a  flora  :  the  youth  of 
the  earth  was  peculiarly  a  green  umbrageous  youth,  —  a  youth  of 
dusk  and  tangled  forests,  of  huge  pines,  and  stately  araucarians, 
of  the  reed-like  calamite,  the  tall  tree-fern,  the  sculptured  sigillaria, 
and  the  hirsute  lepidodendrons.  Wherever  dry  land  or  shallow 
lakes  or  running  stream  appeared,  from  where  Melville  Island  now 
spreads  out  its  icy  coast  under  the  star  of  the  pole,  to  where  the 
arid  plains  of  Australia  lie  solitary  beneath  the  bright  cross  of  the 
South,  a  rank  and  luxuriant  herbage  cumbered  every  foot-breadth 
of  the  dank  and  steaming  soil ;  and  even  to  distant  planets,  our 
earth  must  have  shone  through  the  enveloping  cloud  with  a  green 
and  delicate  ray.  .  .  .  The  geologic  evidence  is  so  complete  as  to 
be  patent  to  all,  that  the  first  great  period  of  organized  being  was, 
as  described  in  the  Mosaic  record,  peculiarly  a  period  of  herbs  and 
trees    yielding  seed  after  their  kind.' 

"  The  middle  great  period  of  the  geologist  —  that  of  the  second- 
ary division  —  possessed,  like  the  earlier  one,  its  herbs  and  plants ; 

*  A  very  inadmissible  assertion.  Any  one  —  be  he  geo]oo:ist,  astronomer, 
theologian^  or  philologist  —  who  attempts  to  explain  the  Hebrew  narrative, 
is  bound  to  take  it  with  all  that  really  belongs  to  it.  And  in  truth,  if  the 
fourth  day  really  represented  an  epoch  of  creative  activity,  geology  would 
be  able  to  give  some  account  of  it.  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  any 
intermission  has  taken  place. 


270  MOSAIC   COSMOGONY. 

but  they  were  of  a  greatly  less  luxuriant  and  conspicuous  character 
than  their  predecessors,  and  no  longer  formed  the  prominent  trait 
or  feature  of  the  creation  to  which  they  belonged.  The  period  had 
also  its  corals,  its  crustaceans,  its  mollusks,  its  fishes,  and  in  some 
one  or  two  exceptional  instances,  its  dwarf  mammals ;  but  the 
grand  existences  of  the  age  —  the  existences  in  which  it  excelled 
every  other  creation,  earlier  or  later  —  were  its  huge  creeping 
things,  —  its  enormous  monsters  of  the  deep,  and,  as  shown  by  the 
impressions  of  their  footprints  stamped  upon  the  rocks,  its  gigantic 
birds.  It  was  peculiarly  the  age  of  egg-bearing  animals,  winged 
and  wingless.  Its  wonderful  ivhales^  not,  however,  as  now,  of  the 
mammalian,  but  of  the  reptilian  class,  —  ichthyosaurs,  plesiosaurs, 
and  cetosaurs,  —  must  have  tempested  the  deep  ;  its  creeping  lizards 
and  crocodiles,  such  as  the  teliosaurus,  megalosaurus,  and  iguano- 
don,  —  creatures,  some  of  which  more  than  rivalled  the  existing 
elephant  in  height,  and  greatly  more  than  rivalled  him  in  bulk,  — 
must  have  crowded  the  plains,  or  haunted  by  myriads  the  rivers  of 
the  period  ;  and  we  know  that  the  footprints  of  at  least  one  of  its 
many  birds  are  of  fully  twice  the  size  of  those  made  by  the  horse 
or  camel.  "NV^e  are  thus  prepared  to  demonstrate,  that  the  second 
period  of  the  geologist  was  peculiarly  and  characteristically  a  pe- 
riod of  whale-like  reptiles  of  the  sea,  of  enoi-mous  creeping  reptiles 
of  the  land,  and  of  numerous  birds,  some  of  them  of  gigantic  size; 
and,  in  meet  accordance  with  the  fact,  we  find  that  the  second  Mosaic 
period  with  which  the  geologist  is  called  on  to  deal  was  a  period 
in  which  God  created  the  fowl  that  flieth  above  the  earth,  with  mov- 
ing (or  creeping)  creatures  both  in  the  waters  and  on  land,  and  what 
our  translation  renders  '  great  whales,'  but  that  I  find  rendered  in 
the  margin,  '  great  sea-monsters.'  The  tertiary  period  had  also  its 
prominent  class  of  existences.  Its  flora  seems  to  have  been  no 
more  conspicuous  than  that  of  the  present  time  :  its  reptiles  occupy 
a  very  subordinate  place  ;  but  its  beasts  of  the  field  were  by  far  the 
most  wonderfully  developed,  both  in  size  and  numbers,  that  ever 
appeared  on  earth.  Its  mammoths  and  its  mastodons,  its  rhinoceri 
and  its  hippopotami,  its  enormous  dinotherium  and  colossal  mega- 
therium, greatly  more  than  equalled  in  bulk  the  hugest  mammals 

of  the  present  time,  and  vastly  exceeded  them  in  number 

'  Grand,  indeed,'  says  an  English  naturalist,  '  was  the  fauna  of  the 
British  Islands  in  these  early  days.  Tigers,  as  large  again  as  the 
biggest  Asiatic  species,  lurked  in  the  ancient  thickets ;  elephants, 
of  nearly  twice  the  bulk  of  the  largest  individuals  that  now  exist  in 
Africa  or  Ceylon,  roamed  in  herds;  at  least  two  species  of  rhinoce- 
ros forced  their  way  through  the  primeval  forest;  and  the  lakes  and 
rivers  were  tenanted  by  hippopotami  as  bulky,  and  with  as  great 
tusks,  as  those  of  Africa.'  The  massive  cave-bear  and  large  cave- 
hyena  belonged  to  the  same  formidable  group,  with  at  least  two 
sj)ecies  of  great  oxen  (Bos  lonffifrom  and  Bos  primigeniusi)^  with  a 
horse  of  smaller  size,  and  an  elk  (Megaceros  Hibernicus)  that  stood 
ten  feet  four  inches  in  height.  Truly  this  Tertiary  age  —  this  third 
and  last  of  the  great  geologic  periods  —  was  peculiarly  the  age  of 


MOSAIC   COSMOGONY.  271 

great  '  beasts  of  the  earth  after  their  kind,  and  cattle  after  their 
kind.' " 

Thus  by  dropping  the  invertebrata  and  the  early 
fishes  and  reptiles  of  the  Palaeozoic  period  as  incon- 
spicuous and  of  little  account,  and  bringing  prom- 
inently forward  the  carboniferous  era  which  succeeded 
them  as  the  most  characteristic  feature  of  the  first 
great  division  ;  by  classing  the  great  land  reptiles  of 
the  secondary  period  with  the  moving  creatures  of  the 
waters  (for  in  the  Mosaic  account  it  does  not  appear 
that  any  inhabitants  of  the  land  were  created  on  the 
fifth  day)  ;  and  evading  the  fact,  that  terrestrial  rep- 
tiles seem  to  have  preceded  birds  in  their  order  of 
appearance  upon  earth,  —  the  geologic  divisions  are 
tolerably  well  assimilated  to  the  third,  fifth,  and  sixth 
Mosaic  days.  These  things  were  represented,  we 
are  told,  to  Moses  in  visionary  pictures,  and  resulted 
in  the  short  and  summary  account  which  he  has 
given. 

There  is  something  in  this  hypothesis  very  near  to 
the  obvious  truth ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  something 
very  remote  from  that  truth  is  meant  to  be  inferred. 
If  it  be  said,  the  Mosaic  account  is  simply  the  spec- 
ulation of  some  early  Copernicus  or  Newton,  who 
devised  a  scheme  of  the  earth's  formation  as  nearly 
as  he  might  in  accordance  with  his  own  observations 
of  nature,  and  vrith  such  views  of  things  as  it  was 
possible  for  an  unassisted  thinker  in  those  days  to 
take,  we  may  admire  the  approximate  correctness  of 
the  picture  drawn,  while  we  see  that  the  writer,  as 
might  be  expected,  took  everything  from  a  different 
point  of  view  from  ourselves,  and,  consequently,  rep- 
resented much  quite  differently  from  the  fact.  But 
nothing  of  this  sort  is  really  intended.     We  are  asked 


272  MOSAIC   COSMOGONY. 

to  believe  that  a  vision  of  creation  was  presented  to 
him  by  divine  power,  for  the  purpose  of  enabhng 
him  to  inform  the  world  of  what  he  had  seen  ;  which 
vision  inevitably  led  him  to  give  a  description  which 
has  misled  the  world  for  centuries,  and  in  which  the 
truth  can  now  only  with  difficulty  be  recognized. 
The  Hebrew  writer  informs  us,  that,  on  the  third  day, 
"  the  earth  brought  forth  grass,  the  herb  yielding  seed 
after  his  kind,  and  the  tree  yielding  fruit,  whose  seed 
was  in  itself,  after  his  kind  ;  "  and,  in  the  twenty-ninth 
verse,  that  God  on  the  sixth  day  said,  "  Behold,  I  have 
given  you  every  herb  bearing  seed,  which  is  upon 
the  face  of  all  the  earth ;  and  every  tree,  in  the  which 
is  the  fruit  of  a  tree  yielding  seed  :  to  you  it  shall  be 
for  meat.  And  to  every  beast  of  the  earth,  and  to 
every  fowl  of  the  air,  and  to  everything  that  crcepeth 
upon  the  earth,  wherein  there  is  life,  I  have  given 
every  green  herb  for  meat.''  Can  it  be  disputed,  that 
the  writer  here  conceives  that  grass,  corn,  and  fruit 
were  created  on  the  third  day,  and  with  a  view  to  the 
future  nourishment  of  man  and  beast  ?  Yet,  accord- 
ing to  the  vision  hypothesis,  he  must  have  been 
greatly  deceived  ;  for  that  luxuriant  vegetation  which 
he  saw  on  the  third  day  consisted,  not  of  plants 
destined  for  the  food  of  man,  but  for  his  fuel.  It 
was  the  flora  of  the  carboniferous  period  which  he 
beheld  ;  concerning  which  Hugh  Miller  makes  the  fol- 
lowing remark,  p.  24  :  — 

"  The  existing  plants  whence  we  derive  our  analogies  in  dealing 
with  the  vegetation  of  this  early  period  contribute  but  little,  if  at 
all,  to  the  support  of  animal  life.  The  ferns  and  their  allies  remain 
untouched  by  the  grazing  animals.  Our  native  club-mosses,  though 
once  used  in  medicine,  are  positively  deleterious ;  the  horsetails, 
though  harmless,  so  abound  in  silex,  which  wraps  them  round  with 
a  cuticle  of  stone,  that  they  are  rarely  cropped  by  cattle  ;  while  the 
thickets  of  fern  which  cover  our  hillsides,  and  seem  so   tempt- 


MOSAIC   COSMOGONY.  273 

ingly  ricli  and  green  in  their  season,  scarce  support  tlie  existence 
of  a  single  creature,  and  remain  untouched  in  stem  and  leaf  from 
their  first  appearance  in  spring,  until  they  droop  and  wither  under 
the  frosts  of  early  winter.  Even  the  insects  that  infest  the  her- 
baria of  the  botanist  almost  never  injure  his  ferns.  Nor  are  our 
resin-producing  conifers,  though  they  nourish  a  few  beetles,  favor- 
ites with  the  herbivorous  tribes  in  a  much  greater  degree.  Judging 
from  all  we  yet  know,  the  earliest  terrestrial  flora  may  have  cov- 
ered the  dry  land  with  its  mantle  of  cheerful  green,  and  served  its 
general  purposes,  chemical  and  others,  in  the  well-balanced  econ- 
omy of  nature :  but  the  herb-eating  animals  would  have  fared  but 
ill,  even  where  it  throve  most  luxuriantly ;  and  it  seems  to  har- 
monize with  the  fact  of  its  unedible  character,  that,  up  to  the 
present  time,  we  know  not  that  a  single  herbivorous  animal  lived 
amongst  its  shades." 

The  Mosaic  writer  is,  however,  according  to  the  theory, 
misled  by  the  mere  aj^pearance  of  luxurious  vegetation 
to  describe  fruit-trees  and  edible  seed-bearing  vege- 
tables as  products  of  the  third  day. 

Hugh  Miller's  treatment  of  the  description  of  the 
first  dawn  of  light  is  not  more  satisfactory  than  that 
of  Dr.  Buckland.  He  supposes  the  prophet  in  his 
dream  to  have  heard  the  command,  "  Let  there  be 
light,"  enunciated ;  whereupon,  ''  straightway  a  gray 
diffused  light  springs  up  in  the  east,  and,  casting  its 
sickly  gleam  over  a  cloud-limited  expanse  of  steaming 
Vaporous  sea,  journeys  through  the  heavens  towards 
the  west.  One  heavy,  sunless  day  is  made  the  repre- 
sentative of  myriads  :  the  faint  light  waxes  fainter ; 
it  sinks  beneath  the  dim,  undefined  horizon." 

We  are  then  asked  to  imagine  that  a  second  and  a 
third  day,  each  representing  the  characteristic  features 
of  a  great  distinctly  marked  epoch,  and  the  latter  of 
them  marked  by  the  appearance  of  a  rich  and  luxu- 
riant vegetation,  are  presented  to  the  seer's  eye ;  but 
without  sun,  moon,  or  stars  as  yet  entering  into  his 
dream.  These  appear  first  in  his  fourth  vision  ;  and 
then,  for  the  first  time,  we  have  a  "  brilliant  day ; " 
12*  B 


274  MOSAIC   COSMOGONY. 

and  the  seer,  struck  with  the  novelty,  describes  the 
heavenly  bodies  as  being  the  most  conspicuous  objects 
in  the  picture.  In  reality,  we  know  that  he  represents 
them  (ver.  16)  as  having  been  made^  and  set  in  the 
heavens,  on  that  day ;  though  Hugh  Miller  avoids 
reminding  us  of  this. 

In  one  respect,  the  theory  of  Hugh  Miller  agrees 
with  that  advocated  by  Dr.  Buckland  and  Archdeacon 
Pratt.  Both  these  theories  divest  the  Mosaic  narra- 
tive of  real  accordance  with  fact ;  both  assume  that 
appearances  only,  not  facts,  are  described,  and  that  in 
riddles  ;  which  would  never  have  been  suspected  to 
be  such,  had  we  not  arrived  at  the  truth  from  other 
sources.  It  would  be  difficult  for  controversialists  to 
cede  more  completely  the  point  in  dispute,  or  to  ad- 
mit more  explicitly  that  the  Mosaic  narrative  does  not 
represent  correctly  the  history  of  the  universe  up  to 
the  time  of  man.  At  the  same  time,  the  upholders  of 
each  theory  see  insuperable  objections  in  details  to 
that  of  their  allies,  and  do  not  pretend  to  any  firm 
faith  in  their  own.  How  can  it  be  otherwise,  when 
the  task  proposed  is  to  evade  the  plain  meaning  of 
language,  and  to  introduce  obscurity  into  one  of  the 
simplest  stories  ever  told,  for  the  sake  of  making  it 
accord  with  the  complex  system  of  the  universe  which 
modern  science  has  unfolded  ?  The  spectacle  of  able, 
and,  we  doubt  not,  conscientious  writers,  engaged  in 
attempting  the  impossible,  is  painful  and  humiliating. 
They  evidently  do  not  breathe  freely  over  their  work, 
but  shuffle  and  stumble  over  their  difficulties  in  a  pite- 
ous manner  ;  nor  are  they  themselves  again  until  they 
return  to  the  pure  and  open  fields  of  science. 

It  is  refreshing  to  return  to  the  often-echoed  re- 
mark, that  it  could  not  have  been  the  object  of  a  divine 


MOSAIC   COSMOGONY.  275 

revelation  to  instruct  mankind  in  physical  science  ; 
man  having  had  faculties  bestowed  upon  liim  to  enable 
him  to  acquire  this  knowledge  by  himself.  This  is, 
in  fact,  pretty  generally  admitted  ;  but,  in  the  appli- 
cation of  the  doctrine,  writers  play  at  fast  and  loose 
with  it  according  to  circumstances.  Thus  an  inspired 
writer  may  be  permitted  to  allude  to  the  phenomena 
of  nature,  according  to  the  vulgar  view  of  such  things, 
without  impeachment  of  his  better  knowledge  ;  but,  if 
he  speaks  of  the  same  phenomena  assertively,  we  are 
bound  to  suppose  that  things  are  as  he  represents 
them,  however  much  our  knowledge  of  nature  may 
be  disposed  to  recalcitrate.  But,  if  we  find  a  dif- 
ficulty in  admitting  that  such  misrepresentations  can 
find  a  place  in  revelation,  the  difficulty  lies  in  our 
having  previously  assumed  what  a  divine  revelation 
ought  to  be.  If  God  made  use  of  imperfectly  in- 
formed men  to  lay  the  foundations  of  that  higher 
knowledge  for  which  the  human  race  was  destined,  is 
it  wonderful  that  they  should  have  committed  them- 
selves to  assertions  not  in  accordance  with  facts,  al- 
though they  may  have  believed  them  to  be  true  ?  On 
what  grounds  has  the  popular  notion  of  divine  reve- 
lation been  built  up  ?  Is  it  not  plain  that  the  plan  of 
Providence  for  the  education  of  man  is  a  progressive 
one  ?  and,  as  imperfect  men  have  been  used  as  the 
agents  for  teaching  mankind,  is  it  not  to  be  expected 
that  their  teachings  should  be  partial,  and,  to  some 
extent,  erroneous  ?  Admitted,  as  it  is,  that  physical 
science  is  not  what  the  Hebrew  writers,  for  the  most 
part,  profess  to  convey ;  at  any  rate,  that  it  is  not  on 
account  of  the  communication  of  such  knowledge  tliat 
we  attach  any  value  to  their  writings,  —  why  should 
we  hesitate  to  recognize  their  fallibility  on  this  head  ? 


276  MOSAIC   COSMOGONY. 

Admitting,  as  is  historically  and  in  fact  the  case, 
that  it  was  the  mission  of  the  Hebrew  race  to  lay  the 
foundation  of  religion  upon  the  earth,  and  that  Provi- 
dence used  this  people  specially  for  this  purpose,  is  it 
not  our  business  and  our  duty  to  look  and  see  how 
this  has  really  been  done  ?  not  forming  for  ourselves 
theories  of  what  a  revelation  ought  to  be,  or  how 
we,  if  intrusted  with  the  task,  would  have  made  one, 
but  inquiring  how  it  has  pleased  God  to  do  it.     In  all 
his  theories  of  the  world,  man  has  at  first  deviated 
widely  from  the  truth,  and  has  only  gradually  come 
to  see  how  far  otherwise  God  has  ordered  things  than 
the  first  daring  speculator  had  supposed.     It  has  been 
popularly  assumed,  that  the  Bible,  bearing  the  stamp 
of  divine  authority,  must  be  complete,  perfect,  and 
unimpeachable  in  all  its  parts  ;  and  a  thousand  difficul- 
ties and  incoherent  doctrines  have  sprung  out  of  this 
theory.     Men  have  proceeded  in  the  matter  of  theol- 
ogy as  they  did  with  physical  science  before  induc- 
tive philosophy  sent  them  to  the  feet  of  Nature,  and 
bid  them  learn,  in  patience  and  obedience,  the  lessons 
which  she  had  to  teach.     Dogma  and  groundless  as- 
sumption occupy  the  place  of  modest  inquiry  after 
truth  ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  the  upholders  of  these 
theories  claim  credit  for  humility  and  submissiveness. 
p  This  is  exactly  inverting  the  fact.     The  humble  schol- 
ar of  truth  is  not  he,  who,  taking  his  stand  upon  the 
traditions  of  rabbins,  Christian  Fathers,  or  schoolmen, 
insists  upon  bending  facts  to  his  unyielding  standard  ; 
but  he  who  is  willing  to  accept  such  teaching  as  it 
has  pleased  Divine  Providence  to  afford,  without  mur- 
muring that  it  has  not  been  furnished  more  copiously 
or  clearly. 

The  Hebrew  race,  their  works  and  their  books,  are 


MOSAIC   COSMOGONY.  277 

great  facts  in  the  history  of  man.  The  influence  of 
the  mind  of  this  people  upon  the  rest  of  mankind  has 
been  immense  and  peculiar,  and  there  can  be  no  diffi- 
culty in  recognizing  therein  the  hand  of  a  directing 
Providence  ;  but  we  may  not  make  ourselves  wiser 
than  God,  nor  attribute  to  him  methods  of  procedure 
which  are  not  his.  If,  then,  it  is  plain  that  he  has  not 
thought  it  needful  to  communicate  to  the  writer  of 
the  Cosmogony  that  knowledge  which  modern  re- 
searches have  revealed,  why  do  we  not  acknowledge 
this,  except  that  it  conflicts  with  a  human  theory 
which  presumes  to  point  out  how  God  ought  to  have 
instructed  man  ?  The  treatment  to  which  the  Mosaic 
narrative  is  subjected  by  the  theological  geologists  is 
anything  but  respectful.  The  writers  of  this  school, 
as  we  have  seen,  agree  in  representing  it  as  a  series  of 
elaborate  equivocations,  —  a  story  which  '^  palters  with 
us  in  a  double  sense."  But,  if  we  regard  it  as  the 
speculation  of  some  Hebrew  Descartes  or  Newton, 
promulgated  in  all  good  faith  as  the  best  and  most 
probable  account  that  could  be  then  given  of  God's 
universe,  it  resumes  the  dignity  and  value  of  which 
the  writers  in  question  have  done  their  utmost  to  de- 
prive it.  It  has  been  sometimes  felt  as  a  difficulty 
to  taking  this  view  of  the  case,  that  the  writer  asserts 
so  solemnly  and  unhesitatingly  that  for  which  he  must 
have  known  that  he  had  no  authority  ;  but  this  arises 
only  from  our  modern  habits  of  thought,  and  from  the 
modesty  of  assertion  which  the  spirit  of  true  science 
has  taught  us.  Mankind  has  learned  caution  through 
repeated  slips  in  the  process  of  tracing  out  the  truth. 

The  early  speculator  was  harassed  by  no  such  scru- 
ples, and  asserted  as  facts  what  he  knew  in  reality 
only  as  probabilities :  but  we  are  not  on  that  account 


278  MOSAIC   COSMOGONY. 

to  doubt  his  perfect  good  faith  ;  nor  need  we  attribute 
to  liim  wilful  misrepresentation,  or  consciousness  of 
asserting  tliat  which  he  knew  not  to  be  true.  He  had 
seized  one  great  truth,  in  which,  indeed,  he  anticipated 
the  highest  revelation  of  modern  inquiry  ;  namely,  the 
unity  of  the  design  of  the  world,  and  its  subordina- 
tion to  one  sole  Maker  and  Lawgiver.  With  regard 
to  details,  observation  failed  him.  He  knew  little 
of  the  earth's  surface,  or  of  its  shape,  and  place  in 
the  universe  ;  the  infinite  varieties  of  organized  ex- 
istences which  people  it,  the  distinct  floras  and  faunas 
of  its  different  continents  were  unknown  to  him  :  but 
he  saw  that  all  which  lay  within  his  observation  had 
been  formed  for  the  benefit  and  service  of  man,  and 
the  goodness  of  the  Creator  to  his  creatures  was  the 
thought  predominant  in  his  mind.  Man's  closer  re- 
lation to  his  Maker  is  indicated  by  the  representa- 
tion that  he  was  formed  last  of  all  creatures,  and  in 
the  visible  likeness  of  God.  For  ages,  this  simple 
view  of  creation  satisfied  the  wants  of  man,  and 
formed  a  sufficient  basis  of  theological  teaching ;  and, 
if  modern  research  now  shows  it  to  be  physically  un- 
tenable, our  respect  for  the  narrative  which  has  played 
so  important  a  part  in  the  culture  of  our  race  need 
be  in  nowise  diminished.  No  one  contends  that  it 
can  be  used  as  a  basis  of  astronomical  or  geological 
teaching ;  and  those  who  profess  to  see  in  it  an  ac- 
cordance with  facts,  only  do  this  suh  modo,  and  by 
processes  which  despoil  it  of  its  consistency  and  grand- 
eur, both  which  may  be  preserved  if  we  recognize 
in  it,  not  an  authentic  utterance  of  divine  knowledge, 
but  a  human  utterance,  which  it  has  pleased  Prov- 
idence to  use  in  a  special  way  for  the  education  of 
mankind. 


TENDENCIES   OF   RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT   IN 
ENGLAND,    1688-1750. 


By  mark  PATTISON.  B.  D. 


THE  thirty  years  of  peace  which  succeeded  the 
peace  of  Utrecht  (1714)  "  was  the  most  pros- 
perous season  that  England  had  ever  experienced ; 
and  the  progression,  though  slow,  being  uniform,  the 
reign  of  George  11.  might  not  disadvantageously  be 
compared,  for  the  real  happiness  of  the  community, 
with  that  more  brilliant  but  uncertain  and  oscillatory 
condition  which  has  ensued.  A  laborer's  wages  have 
never  for  many  ages  commanded  so  large  a  portion  of 
subsistence  as  in  this  part  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury"  (Hallam,  Const.  Hist.,  ii.  464). 

This  is  the  aspect  which  that  period  of  history 
wears  to  the  political  -philosopher.  The  historian  of 
moral  and  religious  progress,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
under  the  necessity  of  depicting  the  same  period  as 
one  of  decay  of  religion,  licentiousness  of  morals, 
public  corruption,  profaneness  of  language,  —  a  day  of 
"  rebuke  and  blasphemy."  Even  those  who  look  with 
suspicion  on  the  contemporary  complaints .  from  the 
Jacobite  clergy,  of  "  decay  of  religion,"  will  not  hesi- 
tate to  say  that  it  was  an  age  destitute  of  depth  or 
earnestness ;  an  age  whose  poetry  was  without  ro- 
mance, whose   philosophy   was  without  insight,  and 


280  TENDENCIES   OF  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

whose  puljlic  men  were  without  character  ;  an  age  of 
''  light  without  love,"  whose  "  very  merits  were  of  the 
earth,  earthy."  In  this  estimate,  the  followers  of 
Mill  and  Carlyle  will  agree  with  those  of  Dr.  New- 
man. 

The  Stoical  moralists  of  the  second  century,  who 
witnes^sed  a  similar  coincidence  of  moral  degradation 
and  material  welfare,  had  no  difficulty  in  connecting 
them  together  as  effect  with  cause :  "  Bona  rerum 
secundarum  optabilia,  adversarum  mirabilia  "  (Sen- 
eca, ad  LuciL,  QQ}.  But  the  famous  theory  which 
satisfied  the  political  philosophers  of  antiquity  —  viz. 
that  the  degeneracy  of  nations  is  due  to  the  inroads  of 
luxury  —  is  laughed  to  scorn  by  modern  economists. 
It  is,  at  any  rate,  a  theory  which  can  hardly  be  adopt- 
ed by  those  who  pour  unmeasured  contempt  on  the 
eighteenth,  by  way  of  contrast  with  the  revival  of 
higher  principles  by  the  nineteenth  century.  It  is 
especially  since  the  High-Church  movement  com- 
menced that  the  theology  of  the  eighteenth  century 
has  become  a  byword.  The  genuine  Anglican  omits 
that  period  from  the  history  of  the  Church  altogether. 
In  constructing  his  "  Catenae  Patrum,"  he  closes  his 
list  with  Waterland  or  Brett,  and  leaps  at  once  to  1833, 
when  the  "Tracts  for  the  Times"  commenced,  —  as 
Charles  II.  dated  his  reign  from  his  father's  death. 
Such  a  legal  fiction  may  be  harmless  or  useful  for 
purposes  of  mere  form  ;  but  the  facts  of  history  cannot 
be  disposed  of  by  forgetting  them.  Both  the  Church 
and  the  world  of  to-day  are  what  they  are  as  the 
result  of  the  whole  of  their  antecedents.  The  history 
of  a  party  may  be  written  on  the  theory  of  periodical 
occultation ;  but  he  who  wishes  to  trace  the  descent 
of  religious   thought,  and  the   practical  working  of 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  281 

the  religious  ideas,  must  follow  these  through  all  the 
phases  they  have  actually  assumed.  We  have  not  yet 
learnt,  in  this  country,  to  write  our  ecclesiastical  his- 
tory on  any  better  footing  than  that  of  praising  up 
the  party,  in  or  out  of  the  Church,  to  which  we  hap- 
pen to  belong.  Still  further  are  we  from  any  attempt 
to  apply  the  laws  of  thought,  and  of  the  succession 
of  opinion,  to  the  course  of  English  theology.  The 
recognition  of  the  fact,  that  the  view  of  the  eternal 
verities  of  religion  which  prevails  in  any  given  age  is 
in  part  determined  by  the  view  taken  in  the  age  which 
preceded  it,  is  incompatible  with  the  hypothesis  gen- 
erally prevalent  among  us  as  to  the  mode  in  which 
we  form  our  notions  of  religious  truth.  Upon  none 
of  the  prevailing  theories  as  to  this  mode  is  a  deduc- 
tive history  of  theology  possible.  1.  The  Catholic 
theory,  which  is  really  that  of  Roman  Catholics,  and 
professedly  that  of  some  Anglo-Catholics,  withdraws 
Christianity  altogether  from  human  experience  and 
the  operation  of  the  ordinary  laws  of  thought.  2.  The 
Protestant  theory  of  free  inquiry,  which  supposes  that 
each  mind  takes  a  survey  of  the  evidence,  and  strikes 
the  balance  of  probability  according  to  the  best  of  its 
judgment,  —  this  theory  defers,  indeed,  to  the  abstract 
laws  of  logic,  but  overlooks  the  influences  of  educa- 
tion. If,  without  hypothesis,  we  are  content  to  observe 
facts,  we  shall  find  that  we  cannot  decline  to  study 
the  opinions  of  any  age,  only  because  they  are  not  our 
own  opinions.  There  is  a  law  of  continuity  in  the 
progress  of  theology,  which,  whatever  we  may  wish, 
is  never  broken  off.  In  tracing  the  filiation  of  con- 
secutive systems,  we  cannot  afford  to  overlook  any 
link  in  the  chain,  any  age,  except  one  in  which  relig- 
ious  opinion   did   not   exist.     Certainly  we,   in   this 


282  TENDENCIES   OF   RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

our  time,  if  we  would  understand  our  own  position  in 
the  Church,  and  that  of  the  Church  in  the  age ;  if  we 
would  hold  any  clew  through  the  maze  of  religious 
pretension  which  surrounds  us,  —  cannot  neglect  those 
immediate  agencies  in  the  production  of  the  present, 
which  had  their  origin  towards  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century. 

Of  these  agencies  there  are  three,  the  present  in- 
fluence of  which  cannot  escape  the  most  inattentive. 

1.  The  formation  and  gradual  growth  of  that  compro- 
mise between  Church  and  State,  which  is  called  Toler- 
ation ;  and  which,  believed  by  many  to  be  a  principle, 
is  a  mere  arrangement  between  two  principles.  But, 
such  as  it  is,  it  is  part  of  our  heritage  from  the  last 
age ;  and  is  the  foundation,  if  foundation  it  can  be 
called,  upon  which  we  still  continue  to  build,  as  in  the 
late  act  for  the  admission  of  the  Jews  to  Parliament. 

2.  The  great  rekindling  of  the  religious  consciousness 
of  the  people,  which,  without  the  Established  Church, 
became  Methodism,  and  within  its  pale  has  obtained 
the  name  of  the  Evangelical  movement.  However 
decayed  may  be  the  Evangelical  party  as  a  party,  it 
cannot  be  denied  that  its  influence,  both  on  our  relig- 
ious ideas  and  on  our  church  life,  has  penetrated 
far  beyond  those  party  limits.  3.  The  growth  and 
gradual  diffusion,  through  all  religious  thinking,  of 
the  supremacy  of  reason.  This,  which  is  rather  a 
principle,  or  a  mode  of  thinking,  than  a  doctrine 
may  be  properly  enough  called  "  Rationalism."  This 
term  is  used  in  this  country  with  so  much  laxity,  that 
it  is  impossible  to  define  the  sense  in  which  it  is  gen- 
erally intended  ;  but  it  is  often  taken  to  mean  a  system 
opposed  to  revealed  religion,  imported  into  this  coun- 
try from  Germany  at  the  beginning  of  the  present 


IN  ENGLAND,  1688-1750.  283 

century.  A  person,  however,  who  surveys  the  course 
of  English  theology  during  the  eighteenth  century, 
will  have  no  difficulty  in  recognizing,  that  throughout 
all  discussions,  underneath  all  controversies,  and  com- 
mon to  all  parties,  lies  the  assumption  of  the  suprem- 
acy of  reason  in  matters  of  religion.  The  Kantian 
philosophy  did  but  bring  forward  into  light,  and  give 
scientific  form  and  a  recognized  position  to,  a  principle 
which  had  long  unconsciously  guided  all  treatment  of 
religious  topics  both  in  Germany  and  in  England. 
Rationalism  was  not  an  anti-Christian  sect  outside  the 
Church,  making  war  against  religion :  it  was  a  habit 
of  thought  ruling  all  minds^  under  the  conditions 
of  which  all  alike  tried  to  make  good  the  peculiar 
opinions  they  might  happen  to  cherish.  The  Church- 
man differed  from  the  Socinian,  and  the  Socinian  from 
the  Deist,  as  to  the  number  of  articles  in  his  creed ; 
but  all  alike  consented  to  test  their  belief  by  the 
rational  evidence  for  it.  Whether  given  doctrines  or 
miracles  were  conformable  to  reason  or  not,  was  dis- 
puted between  the  defence  and  the  assault ;  but  that 
all  doctrines  were  to  stand  or  fall  by  that  criterion, 
was  not  questioned.  The  principles  and  the  priority 
of  natural  religion  formed  the  common  hypothesis  on 
the  ground  of  which  the  disputants  argued  whether 
anything,  and  what,  had  been  subsequently  commu- 
nicated to  man  in  a  supernatural  way.  The  line 
between  those  who  believed  much  and  those  who  be- 
lieved little  cannot  be  sharply  drawn.  Some  of  the 
so-called  Deists  were,  in  fact,  Socinians ;  as  Toland, 
who  expressly  admits  all  those  parts  of  the  New 
Testament  revelation  which  are,  or  seem  to  him, 
comprehensible  by  reason.  (^Christianity  not  Myste- 
rious.^    Nor  is  tl^ere  any  ground  for  thinking  that 


284  TENDENCIES   OF  EELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

Toland  was  insincere  in  liis  profession  of  rational 
Christianity,  as  was  insinuated  by  his  opponents  ;  e.  g, 
Leland  {Vieiv  of  the  Deistical  Writers^  vol.  i.  p.  49). 
A  more  candid  adversary  (Leibnitz),  who  knew  Toland 
personally,  is  "  glad  to  believe  that  the  design  of  this 
author,  a  man  of  no  common  ability,  and,  as  I  think, 
a  well-disposed  person,  was  to  withdraw  men  from 
speculative  theology  to  the  practice  of  its  precepts." 
(^Annotatiunculce  subitanece.')  Hardly  one  here  and 
there,  as  Hume,  professed  Rationalism  in  the  extent 
of  Atheism :  the  great  majority  of  writers  were  em- 
ployed in  constructing  a  via  media  between  Atheism 
and  Athanasianism ;  while  the  most  orthodox  were 
diligently  "  hewing  and  chiselling  Christianity  into 
an  intelligible  human  system,  which  they  then  repre- 
sented, as  thus  mutilated,  as  affording  a  remarkable 
evidence  of  the  truth  of  the  Bible."  (^Tracts  for  the 
Times,  vol.  ii.  No.  73.)  The  title  of  Locke's  treatise, 
*'  The  Reasonableness  of  Christianity,"  may  be  said  to 
have  been  the  solitary  thesis  of  Christian  theology  in 
England  for  great  part  of  a  century. 

If  we  are  to  put  chronological  limits  to  this  system 
of  religious  opinion  in  England,  we  might,  for  the 
sake  of  a  convenient  landmark,  say  that  it  came  in 
with  the  Revolution  of  1688,  and  began  to  decline 
in  vigor  with  the  reaction  against  the  Reform  move- 
ment about  1830.  Locke's  "  Reasonableness  of  Chris- 
tianity "  would  thus  open,  and  the  commencement  of 
the  "  Tracts  for  the  Times  "  mark  the  fall  of  Rational- 
ism. Not  that  chronology  can  ever  be  exactly  applied 
to  the  mutations  of  opinion  ;  for  there  were  Ration- 
alists before  Locke,  —  e.g.  Hales  of  Eton,  and  other 
Arminians ;  nor  has  the  Church  of  England  unani- 
mously adopted  the  principles  of  the  "  Tracts  for  the 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  285 

Times."  But,  if  we  were  to  follow  up  Cave's  nomen- 
clature, the  appellation  Seculum  ratio7ialisticiim  might 
be  affixed  to  tha  eighteenth  century  with  greater 
precision  than  many  of  his  names  apply  to  the  pre- 
vious centuries  :  for  it  was  not  merely  that  Ration- 
alism then  obtruded  itself  as  a  heresy,  or  obtained  a 
footing  of  toleration  within  the  Church  ;  but  the  ra- 
tionalizing method  possessed  itself  absolutely  of  the 
whole  field  of  theology.  With  some  trifling  excep- 
tions, the  whole  of  religious  literature  was  drawn  in 
to  the  endeavor  to  "  prove  the  truth  "  of  Christianity. 
The  essay  and  the  sermon,  the  learned  treatise  and 
the  philosophical  disquisition,  Addison  the  polite  writ- 
er, and  Bentley  the  classical  philologian  (Addison, 
^'  Evidences  of  the  Christian  Religion,"  a  posthumous 
publication  ;  Bentley,  "  Eight  Sermons  at  Boyle's 
Lecture,"  1692),  the  astronomer  Newton  ("Four  Let- 
ters," &c.,  Lond.  1756),  no  less  than  the  theologians 
by  profession,  were  all  engaged  upon  the  same  task. 
To  one  book  of  A.  CoUins  ("  A  Discourse  on  the 
Grounds  and  Reasons  of  the  Christian  Religion," 
Lond.  1724)  are  counted  no  less  than  thirty-five  an- 
swers. Dogmatic  theology  had  ceased  to  exist :  the 
exhibition  of  religious  truth  for  practical  purposes 
was  confined  to  a  few  obscure  writers.  Every  one 
who  had  anything  to  say  on  sacred  subjects  drilled  it 
into  an  array  of  argument  against  a  supposed  objector. 
Christianity  appeared  made  for  nothing  else  but  to  be 
"  proved  :  "  what  use  to  make  of  it  when  it  was  proved 
was  not  much  thought  about.  Reason  was  at  first 
offered  as  the  basis  of  faith,  but  gradually  became  its 
substitute.  The  mind  never  advanced  as  far  as  the 
stage  of  belief ;  for  it  was  unceasingly  engaged  in  rea- 
soning up  to  it.     The  only  quality  in  Scripture  which 


286  TENDENCIES   OF   RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

was  dwelt  upon  was  its  "  credibility."  Even  the 
"  Evangelical "  school,  which  had  its  origin  in  a  re- 
action against  the  dominant  Rationalism,  and  began  in 
endeavors  to  kindle  religious  feeling,  was  obliged  to 
succumb  at  last.  It,  too,  drew  out  its  rational  "  scheme 
of  Christianity,"  in  which  the  atonement  was  made  the 
central  point  of  a  system,  and  the  death  of  Christ  was 
accounted  for  as  necessary  to  satisfy  the  Divine  Jus- 
tice. 

This  whole  rationalist  age  must  again  be  subdivided 
into  two  periods,  the  theology  of  which,  though  be- 
longing to  the  common  type,  has  distinct  specific 
characters.  These  periods  are  of  nearly  equal  length  ; 
and  we  may  conveniently  take  the  middle  year  of  the 
century,  1750,  as  our  terminus  of  division.  Though 
both  periods  were  engaged  upon  the  proof  of  Christi- 
anity, the  distinction  between  them  is  that  the  first 
period  was  chiefly  devoted  to  the  internal,  the  second 
to  the  external,  attestations.  In  the  first  period,  the 
main  endeavor  was  to  show  that  there  was  nothing  in 
the  contents  of  the  revelation  which  was  not  agree- 
able to  reason.  In  the  second,  from  1750  onwards, 
the  controversy  was  narrowed  to  what  are  usually 
called  the  "  evidences,"  or  the  historical  proof  of  the 
genuineness  and  authenticity  of  the  Christian  records. 
From  this  distinction  of  topic  arises  an  important  dif- 
ference of  value  between  the  theological  produce  of 
the  two  periods.  A  great  injustice  is  done  to  the 
eighteenth  century,  when  its  whole  speculative  pro- 
duct is  set  down  under  the  description  of  that  Old 
Bailey  theology,  in  which,  to  use  Johnson's  illustra- 
tion, the  apostles  are  being  tried  once  a  week  for  the 
capital  crime  of  forgery.  This  evidential  school  — 
the  school  of  Lardner,  Paley,  and  Whately  —  belongs 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  287 

strictly  to  the  latter  half  only  of  the  period  now  under 
consideration.  This  school,  which  treated  the  exterior 
evidence,  was  the  natural  sequel  and  supplement  of 
that  which  had  preceded  it,  which  dealt  with  the  in- 
trinsic credibility  of  the  Christian  revelation.  This 
historical  succession  of  the  schools  is  the  logical  order 
of  the  argument ;  for,  when  we  have  first  shown  that 
the  facts  of  Christianity  are  not  incredible,  the  whole 
burden  of  proof  is  shifted  to  the  evidence  that  the 
facts  did  really  occur.  Neither  branch  of  the  argu- 
ment can  claim  to  be  religious  instruction  at  all ;  but 
the  former  does  incidentally  enter  upon  the  substance 
of  the  gospel.  It  may  be  philosophy  rather  than 
theology ;  but  it  raises  in  its  course  some  of  the  most 
momentous  problems  which  can  engage  the  human 
mind.  On  the  other  hand,  a  mind  which  occupies 
itself  with  the  "  external  evidences  "  knows  nothing 
of  the  spiritual  intuition,  of  which  it  renounces  at 
once  the  difficulties  and  the  consolations.  The  supply 
of  evidences  in  what,  for  the  sake  of  a  name,  may  be 
called  the  Georgian  period  (1750-1830),  was  not  oc- 
casioned by  any  demands  of  controversy.  The  attacks 
through  the  press  were  nearly  at  an  end :  the  Deists 
had  ceased  to  be.  The  clergy  continued  to  manufac- 
ture evidence  as  an  ingenious  exercise,  a  literature 
which  was  avowedly  professional,  a  study  which 
might  seem  theology  without  being  it,  which  could 
awaken  none  of  the  scepticism  then  dormant  beneath 
the  surface  of  society.  Evidences  are  not  edged 
tools ;  they  stir  no  feeling :  they  were  the  proper 
theology  of  an  age  whose  literature  consisted  in 
writing  Latin  hexameters.  The  orthodox  school  no 
longer  dared  to  scrutinize  the  contents  of  revelation. 
The   preceding   period   had   eliminated  the  religious 


288  TENDENCIES   OF  EELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

experience :  the  Georgian  had  lost,  besides,  the  power 
of  using  the  speculative  reason. 

The  historical  investigation,  indeed,  of  the  Origines 
of  Christianity,  is  a  study  scarcely  second  in  impor- 
tance to  a  philosophical  arrangement  of  its  doctrines. 
But,  for  a  genuine  inquiry  of  this  nature,  the  English 
writers  of  the  period  had  neither  the  taste  nor  the 
knowledge.  Gibbon  alone  approached  the  true  diffi- 
culties, but  met  only  with  opponents,  ''  victory  over 
wiiom  was  a  sufficient  humiliation."  (^Autobiography.) 
No  Englishman  will  refuse  to  join  with  Coleridge  in 
"  the  admiration  "  he  expresses  "  for  the  head  and 
heart  "  of  Paley  ;  "  the  incomparable  grace,  propriety, 
and  persuasive  facility,  of  his  writings."  (^Aids  to 
Reflection^  p.  401.)  But  Paley  had,  unfortunately, 
dedicated  his  powers  to  a  factitious  thesis :  his  dem- 
onstration, however  perfect,  is  in  unreal  matter. 
The  case,  as  the  apologists  of  that  day  stated  it,  is 
wholly  conventional.  The  breadth  of  their  assump- 
tions is  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  narrow  dimensions 
of  the  point  they  succeeded  in  proving.  Of  an  honest 
critical  inquiry  into  the  origin  and  composition  of  the 
canonical  writings,  there  is  but  one  trace,  —  Herbert 
Marsh's  Lectures  at  Cambridge  ;  and  that  was  sug- 
gested from  a  foreign  source,  and  died  away  without 
exciting  imitators.  That  investigation,  introduced  by 
a  bishop  and  a  professor  of  divinity,  has  scarcely  yet 
obtained  a  footing  in  the  English  Church;  but  it  is 
excluded,  not  from  a  conviction  of  its  barrenness,  but 
from  a  fear  that  it  miglit  prove  too  fertile  in  results. 
This  unwholesome  state  of  theological  feeling  among 
us  is  perhaps  traceable  in  part  to  the  falsetto  of  the 
evidential  method  of  the  last  generation.  We  cannot 
justify,  but  we  may  perhaps  make  our  predecessors 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  289 

bear  part  of  the  blame  of,  that  inconsistency,  which, 
while  it  professes  that  its  religious  belief  rests  on  his- 
torical evidence,  refuses  to  allow  that  evidence  to  be 
freely  examined  in  open  court. 

It  seems,  indeed,  a  singular  infelicity,  that  the  con- 
struction of  the  historical  proof  should  have  been  the 
task  which  the  course  of  events  allotted  to  the  latter 
half  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  critical  knowl- 
edge of  antiquity  had  disappeared  from  the  universi- 
ties. The  past,  discredited  by  a  false  conservatism, 
was  regarded  with  aversion,  and  the  minds  of  men 
directed  habitually  to  the  future,  some  with  fear, 
others  with  hope.  "  The  disrespect  in  which  history 
was  held  by  the  French  philosophes  is  notorious  :  one 
of  the  soberest  of  them  (D'Alembert,  we  believe)  was 
the  author  of  the  wish,  that  all  record  of  past  events 
could  be  blotted  out."  (Mill,  Dissertations^  vol.  i. 
p.  426.)  The  same  sentiment  was  prevalent,  though 
not  in  the  same  degree,  in  this  country.  Hume,  writ- 
ing to  an  Englishman  in  1756,  speaks  of  "  your 
countrymen "  as  "  given  over  to  barbarous  and  ab- 
surd faction."  Of  his  own  history,  the  publisher, 
Millar,  told  him  he  had  only  sold  forty-five  copies  in  a 
twelvemonth.  (^My  Own  Life,  P-  5.)  Warburton  had 
long  before  complained  of  the  Chronicles  published  by 
Hearne,  that  ''  there  is  not  one  that  is  not  a  disgrace 
to  letters  ;  most  of  them  are  so  to  common  sense,  and 
some  even  to  human  nature."  (Parr's  Tracts,  &c., 
p.  109.)  The  oblivion  into  which  the  remains  of 
Christian  antiquity  had  sunk,  till  disinterred  by  the 
Tractarian  movement,  is  well  known.  Having  neither 
the  critical  tools  to  work  with,  nor  the  historical  ma- 
terials to  work  upon,  it  is  no  wonder  if  they  failed 
in  their  art.  Theology  had  almost  died  out  when  it 
13  s 


290  TEKDEXCIES    OF   EELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

received  a  new  impulse  and  a  new  direction  from  Cole- 
ridge. The  evidence-makers  ceased  from  their  futile 
labors  all  at  once,  as  beneath  the  spell  of  some  magi- 
cian. Englishmen  heard  with  as  much  surprise  as  if 
the  doctrine  was  new,  that  the  Christian  faith,  the 
Athanasian  Creed,  of  which  they  had  come  to  wish 
that  the  Church  was  well  rid,  was  "  the  perfection  of 
human  intelligence  ;  "  that  "  the  compatibility  of  a 
document  with  the  conclusions  of  self-evident  reason 
and  with  the  laws  of  conscience  is  a  condition  a  priori 
of  any  evidence  adequate  to  the  proof  of  its  having 
been  revealed  by  God,"  and  that  this  "  is  a  principle 
clearly  laid  down  by  Moses  and  St.  Paul ;  "  lastly,  that 
"  there  are  mysteries  in  Christianity,  but  that  these 
mysteries  are  reason,  —  reason  in  its  highest  form  of 
self-affirmation."  (^Aids  to  Reflection,  pref.  Lit.  Re- 
mains, iii.  293.)  In  this  position  of  Coleridge  the 
Rationalist  theology  of  England,  which  was  in  the 
last  stage  of  decay  and  dotage,  seemed  to  recover  a 
second  youth,  and  to  revert  at  once  to  the  point  from 
which  it  had  started  a  century  before. 

Should  the  religious  historian  then  acknowledge 
that  the  impatient  contempt  with  which  "  the  last 
century  "  is  now  spoken  of  is  justiliable  with  respect 
to  the  later  period,  with  its  artificial  monotone  of 
proof  that  is  no  proof,  he  will  by  no  means  allow 
the  same  of  the  earlier  period,  —  1688  -  1750.  The 
superiority  which  the  theological  writing  of  this  pe- 
riod has  over  that  which  succeeded  it,  is  to  be  re- 
ferred in  part  to  the  superiority  of  the  internal  over 
the  external  proof  of  Clndstianity  as  an  object  of 
thought. 

Both  methods  alike,  as  methods  of  argumentative 
proof,  place  the  mind  in  an  unfavorable  attitude  for 


m  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  291 

the  consideration  of  religious  truth.  It  is  like  remov- 
ing ourselves,  for  the  purpose  of  examining  an  object, 
to  the  furthest  point  from  which  the  object  is  visible. 
Neither  the  external  nor  the  internal  evidences  are 
properly  theology  at  all.  Theology  is,  first  and  prima- 
rily, the  contemplative,  speculative  habit,  by  means  of 
which  the  mind  places  itself  already  in  another  world 
than  this  ;  a  habit  begun  here,  to  be  raised  to  perfect 
vision  hereafter.  Secondly,  and  in  an  inferior  degree, 
it  is  ethical  and  regulative  of  our  conduct  as  men,  in 
those  relations  which  are  temporal  and  transitory. 
Argumentative  proof  that  such  knowledge  is  possible 
can  never  be  substituted  for  the  knowledge,  without 
detriment  to  the  mental  habit.  What  is  true  of  an 
individual  is  true  of  an  age.  When  an  age  is  found 
occupied  in  proving  its  creed,  this  is  but  a  token 
that  the  age  has  ceased  to  have  a  proper  belief  in  it. 
Nevertheless,  there  is  a  difference  in  this  respect  be- 
tween the  sources  from  which  proof  may  be  fetched. 
Where  it  is  busied  in  establishing  the  "  genuineness 
and  authenticity  "  of  the  books  of  Scripture,  neglect- 
ing its  religious  lessons,  and  drawing  out  instead  "  the 
undesigned  coincidences,"  Rationalism  is  seen  in  its 
dullest  and  least  spiritual  form.  When,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  contents  of  the  revelation  are  being  freely 
examined,  and  reason,  as  it  is  called,  but  really  the 
philosophy  in  vogue,  is  being  applied  to  determine 
whether  the  voice  be  the  voice  of  God  or  not,  the 
reasoner  is  indeed  approaching  his  subject  from  a 
false  point  of  view,  but  he  is  still  engaged  with  the 
eternal  verities.  The  reason  has  prescribed  itself  an 
impossible  task  when  it  has  undertaken  to  prove, 
instead  of  evolve  them  ;  to  argue,  instead  of  appro- 
priate them.     But,  anyhow,  it  is  handling  them ;  and, 


292  TENDENCIES   OF   KELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

by  the  contact,  is  raised  in  some  measure  to  the 
"  height  of  that  great  argument." 

This  acknowledgment  seems  due  to  the  period  now 
referred  to.  It  is,  perhaps,  rather  thinking  of  its  pul- 
pit eloquence  than  its  controversies,  that  Professor 
Fraser  does  not  hesitate  to  call  this  "  the  golden  age 
of  English  theology."  (^Essays  in  Philosophy,  p.  205.) 
Such  language,  as  applied  to  our  great  preachers, 
was  once  matter  of  course  ;  but  would  now  hardly 
be  used  by  any  Anglican,  and  has  to  be  sought  for  in 
the  mouth  of  members  of  another  communion.  The 
names  which  once  commanded  universal  homage 
among  us,  —  the  Souths,  Barrows,  Tillotsons,  Slier- 
locks,  —  excite,  perhaps,  only  a  smile  of  pity.  Liter- 
ary taste  is  proverbially  inconstant :  but  theological 
is  still  more  so  ;  for  here  we  have  no  rule  or  chart  to 
guide  us  but  the  taste  of  our  age.  Bossuet,  Bourda- 
loue,  and  Massillon  have  survived  a  dozen  political 
revolutions.  We  have  no  classical  theology,  though 
we  have  not  had  a  political  revolution  since  1660  ; 
for  in  this  subject-matter  the  most  of  Englishmen 
have  no  other  standand  of  merit  than  the  prejudices 
of  sect.  Eminence  only  marks  out  a  great  man  for 
more  cordial  hatred.  Every  flippant  High-Church 
reviewer  has  learnt  to  fling  at  Locke,  the  father  of 
English  Bationalism,  and  the  greatest  name  among 
its  worthies.  Others  are,  perhaps,  only  less  disliked 
because  less  known  ;  "  qui  n'a  pas  de  lecteurs,  n'a 
pas  d'adversaires."  The  principal  writers  in  the  De- 
istical  controversy,  either  side  of  it,  have  expiated 
the  attention  they  once  engrossed  by  as  universal  an 
oblivion. 

The  Dcistical  controversy,  the  all-absorbing  topic 
of  religious  writers  and  preachers  during  the  whole  of 


IN  ENGLAND,   16S8-1750.  293 

this  first  period,  has  pretty  well-defined  limits.  Stil- 
lingfleet,  who  died  Bishop  of  Worcester  in  the  last 
year  (1699)  of  the  seventeenth  century,  marks  the 
transition  from  the  old  to  the  new  argument.  In 
the  six  folios  of  Stillingfleet's  works  may  be  found  the 
latest  echoes  of  the  Romanist  controversy,  and  the 
first  declaration  of  war  against  Locke.  The  Deistical 
controversy  attained  its  greatest  intensity  in  the  twen- 
ties (1720-1740),  after  the  subsidence  of  the  Ban- 
gorian  controversy,  which  for  a  time  had  diverted 
attention  to  itself;  and  it  gradually  died  out  towards 
the  middle  of  the  century.  The  decay  of  interest 
in  the  topic  is  sufficiently  marked  by  the  fact,  that 
the  opinions  of  Hume  failed  to  stimulate  curiosity  or 
antagonism.  His  "  Treatise  of  Human  Nature  "  (1739) 
"  fell  dead-born  from  the  press  ;  "  and  the  only  one  of 
his  philosophical  writings  which  was  received  with 
favor  on  its  first  appearance  was  one  on  the  new 
topic,  "  Political  Discourses  "  (1752).  Of  this  he  says, 
"  It  was  the  only  work  of  mine  which  was  successful 
on  the  first  publication ;  being  well  received  both 
abroad  and  at  home."  (^My  Own  Life.')  Bolingbroke, 
who  died  in  1751,  was  the  last  of  the  professed 
Deists.  When  his  works  were  brought  out  by  his 
executor  (Mallet)  in  1754,  the  interest  in  them  was 
already  gone :  they  found  the  public  cold  or  indis- 
posed. It  was  a  rusty  blunderbuss,  which  he  need 
not  have  been  afraid  to  have  discharged  himself,  in- 
stead of  "  leaving  half  a  crown  to  a  Scotchman  to  let 
it  off  after  his  death."  (Bosivell,  p.  88.)  To  talk 
Deism  had  ceased  to  be  fashionable  as  soon  as  it 
ceased  to  attract  attention. 

The  Rationalism,  which  is  the  common  character  of 
all  the  writers  of  this  time,  is  a  method,  rather  than 


294  TENDENCIES   OF  RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

a  doctrine  ;  an  unconscious  assumption,  rather  than  a 
principle  from  which  they  reason.  They  would,  how- 
ever, all  have  consented  in  statements  such  as  the 
following, —  Bishop  Gibson,  "Second  Pastoral  Let- 
ter," 1730:  — 

"  Tliose  among  us  who  have  labored  of  late  years  to  set  up  reason 
against  revelation  would  make  it  pass  for  an  established  truth,  that, 
it'  you  will  embrace  revelation,  you  must  of  course  quit  your  reason  ; 
which,  if  it  were  true,  would  doubtless  be  a  strong  prejudice  against 
revelation.  But  so  far  is  this  from  being  true,  that  it  is  univer- 
sally acknowledged  that  revelation  itself  is  to  stand  or  fall  hy  the 
test  of  reason ;  or,  in  other  words,  according  as  reason  finds  the 
evidences  of  its  coming  from  God  to  be  or  not  to  be  suffieient  and 
conclusive,  and  the  matter  of  it  to  contradict  or  not  contradict  the 
natural  notions  which  reason  gives  us  of  the  being  and  attributes 
of  God." 

Prideaux  (Humphrey,  Dean  of  Norwich),  "  Letter 
to  the  Deists,"  1748:  — 

"  Let  what  is  written  in  all  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  be 
tried  by  that  which  is  the  touchstone  of  all  religions  ;  I  mean  that 
religion  of  nature  and  reason  which  God  has  written  in  the  hearts 
of  every  one  of  us  from  the  first  creation  :  and  if  it  varies  from  it 
in  any  one  particular,  if  it  prescribes  any  one  thing  which  may  in 
the  minutest  circumstances  thereof  be  contrary  to  its  righteousness, 
I  will  then  acknowledge  this  to  be  an  argument  against  us,  strong 
enough  to  overthrow  the  whole  cause,  and  make  all  things  else  that 
can  be  said  for  it  totally  ineffectual  for  its  support." 

Tillotson  (Archbishop  of  Canterbury),  "  Sermons," 

vol.  hi.  p.  485  :  — 

"  All  our  reasonings  about  revelation  are  necessarily  gathered 
by  our  natural  notions  about  religion,  and  therefore  he  who  sin- 
cerely desires  to  do  the  will  of  God  is  not  apt  to  be  imposed  on  by 
vain  pretences  of  divine  revelation ;  but,  if  any  doctrine  be  pro- 
posed to  him  which  is  pretended  to  come  from  God,  he  measures  it 
by  those  sure  and  steady  notions  which  he  has  of  the  divine  nature 
and  perfections.  He  will  consider  the  nature  and  tendency  of  it,  or 
whether  it  be  a  doctrine  according  to  godliness,  such  as  is  agreeable 
to  the  divine  nature  and  perfections,  and  tends  to  make  us  like 
unto  God :  if  it  be  not,  though  an  angel  should  bring  it,  he  would 
not  receive  it." 

Rogers  (John,  D.  D.),  "Sermons  at  Boyle's  Lec- 
ture," 1727,  p.  59  :  — 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  295 

"  Our  religion  desires  no  otlier  favor  than  a  sober  and  dispas- 
sionate examination.  It  submits  its  grounds  and  reasons  to  an 
unprejudiced  trial,  and  hopes  to  approve  itself  to  the  conviction  of 
any  equitable  inquirer." 

Butler  (Joseph,  Bishop  of  Durham),  "  Analogy," 
&c.,  part  2,  chap.  1 :  — 

"Indeed,  if  in  revelation  there  be  found  any  passages,  the  seem- 
ing meaning  of  which  is  contrary  to  natural  religion,  we  may  most 
certainly  conclude  such  seeming  meaning  not  to  be  the  real  one." 
Ihid.,  chap.  8  :  "  I  have  argued  upon  the  principles  of  the  fatalists, 
which  I  do  not  believe ;  and  have  omitted  a  thing  of  the  utmost 
importance,  which  I  do  believe, —  the  moral  fitness  and  unfitness 
of  actions,  prior  to  all  will  whatever,  which  I  apprehend  as  cer- 
tainly to  determine  the  divine  conduct,  as  speculative  truth  and 
falsehood  necessarily  determine  the  divine  judgment." 

To  the  same  effect,  the  leading  preacher  among  the 
Dissenters  (James  Foster),  ''Truth  and  Excellency  of 
the  Christian  Revelation,"  1731 :  — 

"  The  faculty  of  reason  which  God  hath  implanted  in  mankind, 
however  it  may  have  been  abused  and  neglected  in  times  past,  will, 
whenever  they  begin  to  exercise  it  aright,  enable  them  to  judge  of 
all  these  things.  As  by  means  of  this  they  were  capable  of  dis- 
covering at  first  the  being  and  perfections  of  God,  and  that  he 
governs  the  world  with  absolute  wisdom,  equity,  and  goodness,  and 
what  those  duties  are  which  they  owe  to  him  and  to  one  another, 
they  must  be  as  capable,  if  they  will  divest  themselves  of  preju- 
dice, and  reason  impartially,  of  rectifying  any  mistakes  they  may 
have  fallen  into  about  these  important  points.  It  matters  not 
whether  they  have  hitherto  thought  right  or  wrong,  nor  indeed 
whether  they  have  thought  at  all :  let  them  but  begin  to  consider 
seriously,  and  examine  carefully  and  impartially,  and  they  must  be 
able  to  find  out  all  those  truths,  which,  as  reasonable  creatures, 
they  are  capable  of  knowing,  and  which  afiect  their  duty  and  hap- 
piness." 

Finally,  Warburton,  displaying  at  once  his  disdain 
and  his  ignorance  of  catholic  theology,  affirms  on  his 
own  authority  ("  Works,"  iii.  p.  620),  that  "  the  image 
of  God,  in  which  man  was  at  first  created,  lay  in  the 
faculty  of  reason  only." 

But  it  is  needless  to  multiply  quotations.  The 
received  theology  of  the  day  taught  on  this  point  the 


296  TENDENCIES   OF  RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

doctrine  of  Locke,  as  clearly  stated  by  himself  ("  Es- 
say," b.  iv.  chap.  19,  §  4)  :  — 

"  Reason  is  natural  revelation,  whereby  the  eternal  Father  of 
light,  and  fountain  of  all  knowledge,  communicates  to  mankind  that 
portion  of  truth  which  he  has  laid  within  the  reach  of  their  natural 
faculties :  revelation  is  natural  reason  enlarged  by  a  new  set  of 
discoveries  communicated  by  God  immediately,  which  reason 
vouches  the  truth  of,  by  the  testimony  and  proofs  it  gives,  that  they 
come  from  God.  So  that  he,  that  takes  away  reason  to  make  way 
for  revelation,  puts  out  the  light  of  both,  and  does  much-Avhat  the 
same  as  if  he  would  persuade  a  man  to  put  out  his  eyes  the  better 
to  receive  the  remote  light  of  an  invisible  star  by  a  telescope." 

According  to  this  assumption,  a  man's  religions 
belief  is  a  result  which  issues  at  the  end  of  an  intel- 
lectual process.  In  arranging  the  steps  of  this  pro- 
cess, they  conceived  natural  religion  to  form  the  first 
stage  of  the  journey.  That  stage,  theologians  of  all 
shades  and  parties  travelled  in  company.  It  was  only 
when  they  had  reached  the  end  of  it  that  the  Deists 
and  the  Christian  apologists  parted.  The  former  found 
that  the  light  of  reason  which  had  guided  them  so  far 
indicated  no  road  beyond.  The  Christian  writers  de- 
clared that  the  same  natural  powers  enabled  them  to 
recognize  the  truth  of  revealed  religion.  The  suffi- 
ciency of  natural  religion  thus  became  the  turning- 
point  of  the  dispute.  The  natural  law  of  right  and 
duty,  argued  the  Deists,  is  so  absolutely  perfect,  that 
God  could  not  add  anything  to  it.  It  is  commensurate 
with  all  the  real  relations  in  which  man  stands.  To 
suppose  that  God  has  created  artificial  relations,  and 
laid  upon  man  positive  precepts,  is  to  take  away  the 
very  notion  of  morality.  The  moral  law  is  nothing 
but  the  conditions  of  our  actual  being,  apparent  alike 
to  those  of  the  meanest  and  of  the  highest  capacity. 
It  is  inconsistent  with  this  to  suppose  that  God  has 
gone  on  to  enact  arbitrary  statutes,  and  to  declare 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  297 

them  to  man  in  an  obscure  and  uncertain  light.  This 
was  the  ground  taken  by  the  great  champion  of  Deism 
(Tindal),  and  expressed  in  the  title  of  the  treatise 
which  he  published  in  1732,  when  upwards  of  seventy, 
"  Christianity  as  Old  as  the  Creation  ;  or.  The  Gospel 
a  Eepublication  of  the  Religion  of  Nature."  This  was 
the  point  which  the  Christian  defenders  labored  most, 
to  construct  the  bridge  which  should  unite  the  re- 
vealed to  the  natural.  They  never  demur  to  making 
the  natural  the  basis  on  which  the  Christian  rests,  — 
to  considering  the  natural  knowledge  of  God  as  the 
starting-point  both  of  the  individual  mind  and  of  the 
human  race.  This  assumption  is  necessary  to  their 
scheme,  in  which  revelation  is  an  argument  addressed 
to  the  reason.  Christianity  is  a  resume  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  God  already  attained  by  reason,  and  a  dis- 
closure of  further  truths.  These  further  truths  could 
not  have  been  thought  out  by  reason  ;  but,  when  di- 
vinely communicated,  they  approve  themselves  to  the 
same  reason  which  has  already  put  us  in  possession  of 
so  much.  The  new  truths  are  not  of  another  order 
of  ideas  ;  for  "  Christianity  is  a  particular  scheme  un- 
der the  general  plan  of  Providence  "  (^Analog-i/,  part  2, 
chap.  4),  and  the  whole  scheme  is  of  a  piece,  and  uni- 
form. "  If  the  dispensation  be  indeed  from  God,  all 
the  parts  of  it  will  be  seen  to  be  the  correspondent 
members  of  one  entire  whole  ;  which  orderly  disposi- 
tion of  things  essential  to  a  religious  system  will  assure 
us  of  the  true  theory  of  the  Christian  faith."  (Warbur- 
ton.  Divine  Legation,  &c.,  b.  ix.  ;  Introd.  Works,  vol. 
iii.  p.  600.)  "  How  these  relations  are  made  known, 
whether  by  reason  or  revelation,  makes  no  alteration 
in  the  case  ;  because  the  duties  arise  out  of  the  rela- 
tions themselves,  not  out  of  the  manner  in  which  we 
13* 


298  TENDENCIES   OF  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

are  informed  of  them."  (^Analogy,  part  2,  cliap.  1.) 
"  Those  very  articles  of  belief  and  duties  of  obedience 
which  were  formerly  natural  with  respect  to  their 
manner  of  promulgation,  are  now,  in  the  declaration 
of  them,  also  supernatural."  (Ferguson,  Reason  in  Re- 
ligion, 1675,  p.  29.)  The  relations  to  the  Redeemer 
and  the  Sanctifier  are  not  artificial,  but  as  real  as  those 
to  the  Maker  and  Preserver  ;  and  the  obligations  aris- 
ing out  of  the  one  set  of  relations  as  natural  as  those 
arising  out  of  the  other. 

The  deference  paid  to  natural  religion  is  further 
seen  in  the  attempts  to  establish  a  priori  the  necessity 
of  a  revelation.  To  make  this  out,  it  was  requisite 
to  show  that  the  knowledge  with  wliich  reason  could 
supply  us  was  inadequate  to  be  the  guide  of  life  ;  yet 
reason  must  not  be  too  much  depressed,  inasmuch  as 
it  was  needed  for  the  proof  of  Christianity.  On  the 
one  hand,  the  moral  state  of  the  Heathen  world  prior 
to  the  preaching  of  Christianity,  and  of  Pagan  and 
savage  tribes  in  Africa  and  America  now,  the  super- 
stitions of  the  most  civilized  nations  of  antiquity,  the 
intellectual  follies  of  the  wisest  philosophers,  are  exhib- 
ited in  great  detail.  The  usual  arguments  of  scepti- 
cism on  the  conscious  weakness  of  reason  are  brought 
forward,  but  not  pushed  very  far.  Reason  is  to  be 
humiliated  so  far  as  that  supernatural  light  shall  be 
seen  to  be  necessary  ;  but  it  must  retain  its  competence 
to  judge  of  the  evidence  of  this  supernatural  message. 
Natural  religion  is  insufficient  as  a  light  and  a  motive 
to  show  us  our  way,  and  to  make  us  walk  in  it :  it  is 
sufficient  as  a  light  and  a  motive  to  lead  us  to  revela- 
tion, and  to  induce  us  to  embrace  it.  How  much  of 
religious  trutli  was  contained  in  natural  knowledge, 
or  how  much  was  due  to  supernatural  comnaunication, 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  299 

was  very  variously  estimated.  Locke,  especially,  had 
warned  against  our  liability  to  attribute  to  reason 
much  of  moral  truth  that  had,  in  fact,  been  derived 
from  revelation.  But  the  uncertainty  of  the  demar- 
cation between  the  two  is  only  additional  proof  of 
the  identity  of  the  scheme  which  they  disclose  be- 
tween them.  The  whole  of  God's  government  and 
dealings  with  man  form  one  wide-spread  and  consist- 
ent scheme,  of  which  natural  reason  apprehends  a 
part,  and  of  which  Christianity  was  the  manifestation 
of  a  further  part.  Consistently  heremth,  they  treated 
natural  religion,  not  as  an  historical  dispensation,  but 
as  an  abstract  demonstration.  There  never  was  a 
time  when  mankind  had  realized  or  established  an 
actual  system  of  natural  religion,  but  it  lies  always 
potentially  in  his  reason.  It  held  the  same  place  as 
the  social  contract  in  political  history.  The  "  original 
contract "  had  never  had  historical  existence,  but  it 
was  a  hypothesis  necessary  to  explain  the  existing 
fact  of  society.  No  society  had,  in  fact,  arisen  on 
that  basis  ;  yet  it  is  the  theoretical  basis  on  which  all 
society  can  be  shown  to  rest.  So  there  was  no  time 
or  country  where  the  religion  of  nature  had  been 
fully  known  ;  yet  the  natural  knowledge  of  God  is  the 
only  foundation  in  the  human  mind  on  which  can  be 
built  a  rational  Christianity.  Though  not  an  original 
condition  of  any  part  of  mankind,  it  is  an  ever-origi- 
nating condition  of  every  human  mind,  as  soon  as  it 
begins  to  reason  on  the  facts  of  religion,  rendering  all 
the  moral  phenomena  available  for  the  construction 
of  a  scientific  theory  of  religion. 

In  accordance  with  this  view,  they  interpreted  the 
passages  in  St.  Paul  which  speak  of  the  religion 
of  the  Heathen  ;  e.g.  Rom.  ii.  14.     Since  the  time  of 


300  TENDENCIES   OF  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

Augustine  ("  De  Spir.  et  Lit.,"  §  27),  the  orthodox 
interpretation  had  appHed  this  verse,  either  to  the 
Gentile  converts,  or  to  the  favored  few  among  the 
Heathen  who  had  extraordinary  divine  assistance. 
The  Protestant  expositors,  to  whom  the  words,  "  do 
by  nature  the  things  contained  in  the  law,"  could 
never  bear  their  literal  force,  sedulously  preserved 
the  Augustinian  explanation.  Even  the  Pelagian 
Jeremy  Taylor  is  obliged  to  gloss  the  phrase,  "  by 
nature,"  thus :  "  By  fears  and  secret  opinions  which 
the  Spirit  of  God,  who  is  never  wanting  to  men  in 
things  necessary,  was  pleased  to  put  into  the  hearts 
of  men."  (Duct.  Dubit.,  b.  ii.  chap.  1,  §  3.)  The  Ra- 
tionalists, however,  find  the  expression  "  by  nature," 
in  its  literal  sense,  exactly  conformable  to  their  own 
views  (Wilkins,  "  Of  Nat.  Rel.,"  ii.  c.  9)  ;  and  have  no 
difficulty  even  in  supposing  the  acceptableness  of 
these  works,  and  the  salvability  of  those  who  do  them. 
Burnet,  on  Art.  xviii.,  in  his  usual  confused  style  of 
eclecticism,  suggests  both  opinions,  without  seeming 
to  see  that  they  are  incompatible  relics  of  divergent 
schools  of  doctrine. 

Consequent  with  such  a  theory  of  religion  was 
their  notion  of  its  practical  bearings,  Christianity 
was  a  republication  of  the  moral  law,  —  a  republica- 
tion rendered  necessary  by  the  helpless  state  of  moral 
debasement  into  which  the  world  was  come  by  the 
practice  of  vice.  The  experience  of  ages  had  proved, 
that  though  our  duty  might  be  discoverable  by  the 
light  of  nature,  yet  virtue  was  not  able  to  maintain 
itself  in  the  world  without  additional  sanctions.  The 
disinterestedness  of  virtue  was  here  a  point  much 
debated.  The  Deists,  in  general,  argued  from  the 
notion  of  morality,  that  so  far  as  any  private  regard 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  801 

to  my  own  interest,  whether  present  or  future,  influ- 
enced my  conduct,  so  far  my  actions  had  no  moral 
worth.  From  this  they  drew  the  inference,  that  the 
rewards  and  punishments  of  Christianity  —  these  ad- 
ditional sanctions  —  could  not  be  a  divine  ordinance, 
inasmuch  as  they  were  subversive  of  morality.  The 
orthodox  writers  had  to  maintain  the  theory  of  re- 
wards and  punishments  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  be 
inconsistent  with  the  theory  of  the  disinterestedness 
of  virtue,  which  they  had  made  part  of  their  theol- 
ogy. Even  here  no  precise  line  can  be  drawn  be- 
tween the  Deistical  and  the  Christian  moralists :  for 
we  find  Shaftesbury  placing  in  a  very  clear  light  the 
mode  in  which  religious  sanctions  do,  in  fact,  as  soci- 
ety is  constituted,  support  and  strengthen  virtue  in  the 
world ;  though  he  does  not  deny  that  the  principle  of 
virtue  in  the  individual  may  suifer  from  the  selfish 
passion  being  appealed  to  by  the  hope  of  reward  or 
the  fear  of  punishment.  (  Character  (sticks,  vol.  ii.  p.  66.^ 
But,  with  whatever  variation  in  individual  disputants, 
the  tone  of  the  discussion  is  unmistakable.  When 
Collins  was  asked  why  he  was  careful  to  make  his 
servants  go  to  church,  he  is  said  to  have  answered, 
"  I  do  it  that  they  may  neither  rob  nor  murder  me." 
This  is  but  an  exaggerated  form  of  the  practical  re- 
ligion of  the  age.  Tillotson's  sermon  ("  Works,"  vol. 
iii.  p.  43)  "  On  the  Advantages  of  Religion  to  Soci- 
eties" is  like  Collins's  reply  at  fuller  length.  The 
Deists  and  their  opponents  alike  assume  that  the  pur- 
pose of  the  supernatural  interference  of  the  Deity  in 
revelation  must  have  been  to  secure  the  good  behav- 
ior of  man  in  this  world  ;  that  the  future  life  and 
our  knowledge  of  it,  may  be  a  means  to  this  great 
end ;  that  the  next  world,  if  it  exist  at  all,  bears  that 


302  TENDENCIES   OF  RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

relation  to  the  present.  We  are  chiefly  famihar  with 
these  views  from  their  having  been  long  the  butt  of 
the  Evangelical  pulpit,  a  chief  topic  in  which  was  to 
decry  the  mere  "  legal"  preaching  of  a  preceding  age. 
To  abstain  from  vice,  to  cultivate  virtue,  to  fill  our  sta- 
tion in  life  with  propriety,  to  bear  the  ills  of  life  with 
resignation,  and  to  use  its  pleasures  moderately, — 
these  things  are,  indeed,  not  little  :  perhaps  no  one  can 
name  in  his  circle  of  friends  a  man  whom  he  thinks 
equal  to  these  demands.  Yet  the  experience  of  the 
last  age  has  shown  us  unmistakably,  that  where  this 
is  our  best  ideal  of  life,  whether,  with  the  Deists,  we 
establish  the  obligation  of  morality  on  ^'  independent " 
grounds ;  or,  with  the  orthodox,  add  the  religious 
sanction,  —  in  Mr.  Mill's  rather  startling  mode  of  put- 
ting it  ("Dissertations,  vol.  ii.  p.  436),  "Because 
God  is  stronger  than  we,  and  able  to  damn  us  if  we 
don't," — it  argues  a  sleek  and  sordid  epicurism,  in 
which  religion  and  a  good  conscience  have  their  place 
among  the  means  by  which  life  is  to  be  made  comfort- 
able. To  accuse  the  divines  of  this  age  of  a  leaning 
to  Arminianism  is  quite  beside  the  mark.  They  did 
not  intend  to  be  other  than  orthodox.  They  did  not 
take  the  Arminian  side  rather  than  the  Calvinistic  in 
the  old  conflict  or  concordat  between  faith  and  works, 
between  justification  and  sanctification.  They  had 
dropped  the  terminology,  and  with  it  the  mode  of 
thinking,  which  the  terms  implied.  They  had  adopted 
the  language  and  ideas  of  the  moralists.  They  spoke 
not  of  ein,  but  of  vice  ;  and  of  virtue,  not  of  works.  In 
the  old  Protestant  theology,  actions  had  only  a  certain 
exterior  relation  to  the  justified  man :  "  Gute  fromme 
Werke  machen  nimmermehr  einen  guten  frommen 
Mann,  sondern  ein  guter  frommer  Mann  macht  gute 


IN  ENGLAND,   16S8-1750.  303 

Werke."  (^Luther.')  Now,  our  conduct  was  thought 
of,  not  as  a  product  or  efflux  of  our  character,  but  as 
regulated  by  our  understanding ;  by  a  percejotion  of 
relations,  or  a  calculation  of  consequences.  This  intel- 
lectual perception  of  regulative  truth  is  religious  faith. 
Faith  is  no  longer  the  devout  condition  of  the  entire 
inner  man.  Its  dynamic  nature  and  interior  working 
are  not  denied,  but  they  are  unknown  ;  and  religion 
is  made  to  regulate  life  from  without,  through  the  log- 
ical proof  of  the  being  and  attributes  of  God,  upon 
which  an  obligation  to  obey  him  can  be  raised. 

The  preachers  of  any  period  are  not  to  be  censured 
for  adapting  their  style  of  address  and  mode  of  argu- 
ing to  their  hearers.  They  are  as  necessarily  boimd 
to  the  preconceived  notions  as  to  the  language  of 
those  whom  they  have  to  exhort.  The  pulpit  does 
not  mould  the  forms  into  which  religious  thought  in 
any  age  runs  :  it  simply  accommodates  itself  to  those 
that  exist.  For  this  very  reason,  because  they  must 
follow  and  cannot  lead,  sermons  are  the  surest  index 
of  the  prc^vailing  religious  feeling  of  their  age.  Wlien 
we  are  reminded  of  the  powerful  influence  of  the 
pulpit  at  the  Reformation,  in  the  time  of  the  Long 
Parliament,  or  at  the  Methodist  revival,  it  must  also 
be  remembered  that  these  preachers  addressed  a  dif- 
ferent class  of  society  from  that  for  which  our  clas- 
sical pulpit  oratory  was  written.  If  it  could  be  said 
that  "  Sherlock,  Hare,  and  Gibson  preach  in  vain,"  it 
was  because  the  populace  were  gone  to  hear  mad  Hen- 
ley on  his  tub.  To  charge  Tillotson  or  Foster  with 
not  moving  the  masses  which  Whitefield  moved,  is  to 
charge  them  with  not  having  preached  to  another 
congregation  than  that  to  which  they  had  to  preach. 
Nor  did  they  preach  to   empty  pews,  though  their 


304  TENDENCIES   OF  EELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

carefully  written  "  discourses  "  could  never  produce 
effects  such  as  are  recorded  of  Burnet's  extempore 
addresses,  when  he  "  was  often  interrupted  by  the 
deep  hum  of  his  audience  ;  and  when,  after  preaching 
out  the  hour-glass,  he  held  it  up  in  his  hand,  the  con- 
gregation clamorously  encouraged  him  to  go  on  till 
the  sand  had  run  off  once  more."  QMacaulay,  vol.  ii. 
p.  177.)  The  dramatic  oratory  of  Whitefield  could 
not  have  sustained  its  power  over  the  same  auditors : 
he  had  a  fresh  congregation  every  Sunday.  And,  in 
the  judgment  of  one  quite  disposed  to  do  justice  to 
Whitefield,  there  is  nothing  in  his  sermons  such  as 
are  printed.  Johnson  (ap.  BosiveW),  speaking  of  the 
comparisons  drawn  between  the  preaching  in  the 
Church  and  that  of  the  Methodists,  to  the  disadvan- 
tage of  the  former,  says,  "  I  never  treated  Whitefield's 
ministry  with  contempt :  I  believe  he  did  good.  But, 
when  familiarity  and  noise  claim  the  praise  due  to 
knowledge,  art,  and  elegance,  we  must  beat  down 
such  pretensions."  It  is,  however,  the  substance, 
and  not  the  manner,  of  the  classical  sermons  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  which  is  meant,  when  they  are 
complained  of  as  cold  and  barren.  From  this  accusa- 
tion they  cannot  be  vindicated.  But  let  it  be  rightly 
understood,  that  it  is  a  charge,  not  against  the  preach- 
ers, but  against  the  religious  ideas,  of  the  period.  In 
the  pulpit,  the  speaker  has  no  choice  but  to  take  his 
audience  as  he  finds  them.  He  can  but  draw  them 
on  to  the  conclusions  already  involved  in  their  prem- 
ises. He  cannot  supply  them  with  a  new  set  of  prin- 
ciples, and  alter  their  fixed  forms  of  thought.  The 
ideas  out  of  which  the  Protestant  or  the  Puritan  move- 
ment proceeded  were  generated  elsewhere  than  in  the 
pulpit. 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  305 

The  Rationalist  preachers  of  the  eighteenth  century 
are  usually  contrasted  with  the  Evangelical  pulpit 
which  displaced  them.  Mr.  Neale  has  compared  them 
disadvantageously  with  the  mediaeval  preachers  in 
respect  of  Scripture  knowledge.  He  selects  a  sermon 
of  the  eighteenth  and  one  of  the  twelfth  century ;  tlie 
one  by  the  well-known  Evangelical  preacher  John 
Newton,  Rector  of  St.  Mary  Woolnoth ;  the  other  by 
Guarric,  Abbot  of  Igniac.  "  In  Newton's  sermon  we 
find  nine  references  to  the  Gospels,  two  to  the 
Epistles,  nine  to  the  Prophets,  one  to  the  Psalms,  and 
none  to  any  other  part  of  Scripture.  In  the  sermon 
of  Guarric  we  find  seven  references  to  the  Gospels, 
one  to  the  Epistles,  twenty-two  to  the  Psalms,  nine  to 
the  Prophets,  and  eighteen  to  other  parts  of  Scrip- 
ture. Thus  the  total  number  of  quotations  made  by 
the  Evangelical  preacher  is  twenty-one  ;  by  Guarric, 
fifty-seven  ;  and  this  in  sermons  of  about  equal  length." 
(^Mediceval  Preachings  Introd.  xxvi.)  Mr.  Neale  has, 
perhaps,  not  been  fortunate  in  his  selection  of  a  speci- 
men sermon ;  for,  having  the  curiosity  to  apply  this 
childish  test  to  a  sermon  of  John  Blair,  taken  at 
random  out  of  his  four  volumes,  I  found  the  number 
of  texts  quoted  thirty-seven.  But,  passing  this  by, 
Mr.  Neale  misses  his  inference.  He  means  to  show 
how  much  more  Scripture  knowledge  was  possessed 
by  the  preachers  of  the  "  dark  ages."  This  is  very 
likely,  if  familiarity  with  the  mere  words  of  the  Yul- 
gate  version  be  Scripture  knowledge  ;  but  it  is  not 
proved  by  the  abstinence  of  the  eighteenth-century 
preacher  from  the  use  of  biblical  phraseology.  The 
fact,  so  far  as  it  is  one,  only  shows  that  our  divines 
understood  Scripture  differently,  som.e  will  say  better, 
than  the  middle-age  ecclesiastic.     The  latter  had,  in 

T 


306  TENDENCIES   OF  RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

the  mystical  theology  of  the  Christian  Church,  a  rich 
store  of  religious  sentiment,  which  it  was  an  exercise 
of  their  ingenuity  to  find  in  the  poetical  books  of  the 
Hebrew  canon.  Great  part  of  this  fanciful  allegoriz- 
ing is  lost,  apart  from  the  Vulgate  translation.  But 
of  this  the  more  learned  of  them  were  quite  aware  ; 
and  on  their  theory  of  Scripture  interpretation, 
according  to  which  the  Church  was  its  guaranteed 
expositor,  the  verbal  meanings  of  the  Latin  version 
were  equally  the  inspired  sense  of  the  sacred  record. 
It  was  otherwise  with  the  English  divine  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  According  to  the  then  received 
view  of  Scripture,  its  meaning  was  not  assigned 
by  the  Church,  but  its  language  was  interpreted  by 
criticism ;  i.  e.  by  reason.  The  aids  of  history,  the 
ordinary  rules  of  grammar  and  logic,  were  applied  to 
find  out  what  the  sacred  writers  actually  said.  That 
was  the  meaning  of  Scripture,  the  message  super- 
naturally  communicated.  Where  each  text  of  Scrip- 
ture has  but  one  sense,  that  sense  in  which  the 
writer  penned  it,  it  can  only  be  cited  in  that  sense 
without  doing  it  violence.  This  was  the  turn  by 
which  Selden  so  discomfited  the  Puritan  divines,  who, 
like  the  Catholic  mystics,  made  Scripture  words  the 
vehicle  of  their  own  feelings.  "  Perhaps  in  your  little 
pocket  Bibles  with  gilt  leaves  the  translation  may  be 
thus  ;  but  the  Greek  or  Hebrew  signifies  otherwise." 
(Whitelocke,  Johnson's  Life  of  Selden^  p.  303.)  If 
the  preacher  in  the  eighteenth  century  had  allowed, 
himself  to  make  these  allusions,  the  taste  of  his 
audience  would  have  rejected  them.  He  would  have 
weakened  his  argument  instead  of  giving  it  effect. 

No  quality  of  these  "  Discourses  "  strikes  us  more 
now    than    the    good    sense   which    pervades    them. 


IN  ENGLAND,  1688-1750.  307 

They  are  the  complete  reaction  against  the  Puritan 
sermon  of  the  seventeenth  century.  We  have  noth- 
ing far-fetched,  fanciful,  allegoric.  The  practice  of  our 
duty  is  recommended  to  us  on  the  most  undeniable 
grounds  of  prudence.  Barrow  had  indulged  in  ambi- 
tious periods,  and  South  had  been  jocular.  Neither 
of  these  faults  can  be  alleged  against  the  model  ser- 
mon of  the  Hanoverian  period.  No  topic  is  produced 
which  does  not  compel  our  assent  as  soon  as  it  is  un- 
derstood, and  none  is  there  which  is  not  understood 
as  soon  as  uttered.  It  is  one  man  of  the  world  speak- 
ing to  another.  Collins  said  of  St.  Paul,  "  that  he 
had  a  great  respect  for  him  as  both  a  man  of  sense  and 
a  gentleman."  He  might  have  said  the  same  of  the 
best  pulpit  divines  of  his  own  time.  They  bear  the 
closest  resemblance  to  each  other,  because  they  all  use 
the  language  of  fashionable  society,  and  say  exactly 
the  proper  thing.  "  A  person,"  says  Waterland,  "  must 
have  some  knowledge  of  men,  besides  that  of  books, 
to  succeed  well  here  ;  and  must  have  a  kind  of  prac- 
tical sagacity,  which  nothing  but  the  grace  of  God, 
joined  with  recollection  and  wise  observation,  can 
bring,  to  be  able  to  represent  truths  to  the  life,  or  to 
any  considerable  degree  of  advantage."  This  is  from 
his  recommendatory  preface  prefixed  to  an  edition  of 
Blair's  Sermons  (1739)  ;  not  the  Presbyterian  Dr. 
Hugh  Blair,  but  John  Blair,  the  founder  and  first 
President  of  a  Missionary  College  in  Virginia,  whose 
"  Sermons  on  the  Beatitudes  "  were  among  the  most 
approved  models  of  the  day,  and  recommended  by  the 
bishops  to  their  candidates  for  orders.  Dr.  Hugh 
Blair's  Sermons,  which  Johnson  thought  "  excellently 
written,  both  as  to  doctrine  and  language  "  (ap.  Bos- 
luell,  p.  528),  are  in  a  different  taste,  —  that  of  the  lat- 


808  TENDENCIES    OF   RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

ter  half  of  the  century,  when  sohd  and  sensible  rea- 
soning was  superseded  by  polished  periods  and  flowery 
rhetoric.  "  Polished  as  marble,"  says  Hugh  J.  Kose, 
"  but  also  as  lifeless  and  as  cold."  The  sermons 
which  Waterland  recommends  to  young  students  of 
divinity  comprise  Tillotson,  Sharp,  Calamy,  Sprat, 
Blackball,  Hoadly,  South,  Claggett,  and  Atterbury. 
Of  these,  "  Sharp's,  Calamy's,  and  Blackhall's  are  the 
best  models  for  an  easy,  natural,  and  familiar  way  of 
writing.  Sprat  is  fine,  florid,  and  elaborate  in  his 
style,  artful  in  his  method,  and  not  so  open  as  the 
former,  but  harder  to  be  imitated.  Hoadly  is  very 
exact  and  judicious,  and  both  his  sense  and  style  just, 
close,  and  clear.  The  others  are  very  sound,  clear 
writers  ;  only  Scot  is  too  swelling  and  pompous,  and 
South  is  something  too  full  of  wit  and  satire,  and  does 
not  always  observe  a  decorum  in  his  style."  He 
advises  the  student  to  begin  his  divinity  course  with 
reading  sermons,  because  "  they  are  the  easiest,  plain- 
est, and  most  entertaining  of  any  books  of  divinity ; 
and  might  be  digested  into  a  better  body  of  divinity 
than  any  that  is  yet  extant."  (^Advice  to  a  Young- 
Student,  1730.) 

Not  only  the  pulpit,  but  the  whole  theological  lit- 
erature of  the  age,  takes  the  same  tone  of  appeal. 
Books  are  no  longer  addressed  by  the  cloistered  aca- 
demic to  a  learnedly  educated  class  :  they  are  written 
by  popular  divines — "men  of  leisure,"  Butler  calls 
them  —  for  the  use  of  fashionable  society.  There  is 
an  epoch  in  the  history  of  letters,  when  readers  and 
writers  change  places ;  when  it  ceases  to  be  the  read- 
er's business  to  come  to  the  writer  to  be  instructed, 
and  the  writer  begins  to  endeavor  to  engage  the  at- 
tention of  the  reader.     The  same  necessity  was  now 


IN  ENGLAND,    1688-1750.  309 

laid  upon  the  religious  writer.  He  appeared  at  the 
bar  of  criticism,  and  must  gain  the  wits  and  the  town. 
At  the  debate  between  the  Deists  and  the  Christian 
apologists,  the  public  was  umpire.  The  time  was  past 
when  Baxter  "  talked  about  another  world  like  one 
that  had  been  there,  and  was  come  as  a  sort  of  express 
from  thence  to  make  a  report  concerning  it."  (Calamy, 
Life,  i.  220.)  As  the  preacher  now  no  longer  spake 
with  the  authority  of  a  heavenly  mission,  but  laid  the 
state  of  the  argument  before  his  hearers  ;  so  philos- 
ophy was  no  longer  a  self-centred  speculation,  an 
oracle  of  wisdom.  The  divine  went  out  into  the 
streets,  with  his  demonstration  of  the  being  and  attri- 
butes of  God  printed  on  a  broadside  :  he  solicits  your 
assent  in  "  the  new  court-jargon."  When  Collins  visit- 
ed Lord  Barrington  at  Tofts,  ''  as  they  were  all  men 
of  letters,  and  had  a  taste  for  Scripture  criticism,  it  is 
said  to  have  been  their  custom,  after  dinner,  to  have 
a  Greek  Testament  laid  on  the  table."  (^Biog.  Brit.,  art. 
"  Barrington.")  These  discussions  were  not  necessari- 
ly unprofitable.  Lord  Bolingbroke  "  was  seldom  in  the 
company  of  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon  without  dis- 
cussing some  topic  beneficial  to  his  eternal  interests, 
and  he  always  paid  the  utmost  respect  and  deference 
to  her  ladyship's  opinion."  (^Memoirs  of  Countess  of 
Hunt.,  i.  180.)  Bishop  Butler  gives  his  clergy  hints 
how  to  conduct  themselves  when  "  sceptical  and  pro- 
fane men  bring  up  the  subject  (religion)  at  meetings 
of  entertainment,  and  such  as  are  of  the  freer  sort : 
innocent  ones,  I  mean ;  otherwise  I  sliould  not  suppose 
you  would  be  present  at  them."  (^Durham  Charge, 
1751.)  Tindal's  reconversion  from  Romanism  is  said 
to  have  been  brought  about  by  the  arguments  he 
heard  in  the  coffee-houses.     This  anecdote,  given  in 


310  TENDENCIES   OF   RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

Curll's  catchpenny  "  Life,"  rests,  not  on  that  book- 
seller's authority,  which  is  worthless,  but  on  that  of 
the  medical  man  who  attended  him  in  his  last  illness. 
It  was  the  same  with  the  controversy  on  the  Trinity  ; 
of  which  Waterland  says,  in  1723,  that  it  was  "  spread 
abroad  among  all  ranks  and  degrees  of  men,  and  the 
Athanasian  Creed  become  the  subject  of  common  and 
ordinary  conversation."  (^Critical  Hist,  of  the  Athan. 
Greedy  Introd.)  The  universities  were  invaded  by 
the  spirit  of  the  age,  and  instead  of  taking  students 
through  a  laborious  course  of  philosophy,  natural  and 
moral,  turned  out  accomplished  gentlemen  upon  "  the 
classics,"  and  a  scantling  of  logic.  Berkeley's  ironical 
portrait  of  the  modish  philosopher  is  of  date  1732  :  — 

"  Lysicles  smiled,  and  said  he  believed  Euphranor  had  figured  to 
himself  philosophers  in  square  caps  and  long  gowns ;  but,  thanks 
to  these  happy  times,  the  reign  of  pedantry  was  over.  Our  philoso- 
phers are  of  a  very  different  kind  from  those  awkward  students 
who  think  to  come  at  knowledge  by  poring  on  dead  languages  and 
old  authors,  or  by  sequestering  themselves  from  the  cares  of  the 
world  to  meditate  in  solitude  and  retirement.  They  are  the  best 
bred  men  of  the  age,  —  men  who  know  the  world,  men  of  pleas- 
ure, men  of  fashion,  and  fine  gentlemen.  —  Euph. :  I  have  some 
small  notion  of  the  people  you  mention,  but  should  never  have 
taken  them  for  philosophers.  —  Cri  :  Nor  would  any  one  else  till 
of  late.  The  world  was  long  under  a  mistake  about  the  way  to 
knowledge,  thinking  it  lay  througli  a  tedious  course  of  academical 
education  and  study.  But,  among  the  discoveries  of  the  present 
age,  one  of  tlie  principal  is  the  finding-out  that  such  a  method  doth 
rather  retard  and  obstruct  than  promote  knowledge.  —  Lys.  :  I 
will  undertake,  a  lad  of  fourteen,  bred  in  the  modern  way,  shall 
make  a  better  figure,  and  be  more  considered  in  any  drawing- 
room,  or  assembly  of  polite  people,  than  one  at  four  and  twenty 
who  hath  lain  by  a  long  time  at  school  and  college.  He  shall  say 
better  things,  in  a  better  manner,  and  be  more  liked  by  good 
judges.  — Euph. :  Where  doth  he  pick  up  this  improvement  ?  — Cri  : 
Where  our  grave  ancestors  would  never  have  looked  for  it,  —  in  a 
drawing-room,  a  coffee-house,  a  chocolate-late-house,  at  the  tavern, 
or  groom-porter's.  In  these  and  the  like  fashionable  places  of  re- 
sort, it  is  the  custom  for  polite  persons  to  speak  freely  on  all 
subjects,  —  religious,  moral,  or  political ;  so  that  a  young  gentleman 
who  frequents  them  is  in  the  way  of  hearing  many  instructive 
lectures,  seasoned  with  wit  and  raillery,  and  uttered  with  spirit. 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  311 

Three  or  four  sentences  from  a  man  of  quality,  spoken  with  a 
good  air,  make  more  impression,  and  convey  more  knowledge, 
than  a  dozen  dissertations  in  a  dry  academical  way.  .  .  .  You 
may  now  commonly  see  a  young  lady  or  a  petit  maitre  nonplus 
a  divine  or  an  old-fashioned  gentleman,  who  hath  read  many  a 
Greek  and  Latin  author,  and  spent  much  time  in  hard  methodical 
study."  —  AlcipJa-ofi,  Dial.  i.  §  11 . 

Among  a  host  of  mischiefs  thus  arising,  one  pos- 
itive good  may  be  signahzed.  If  there  must  be  debate, 
there  ought  to  be  fair  play ;  and,  of  this,  pubHcity  is 
the  best  guaranty.  To  make  the  public  arbiter  in  an 
abstract  question  of  metaphysics  is  doubtless  absurd ; 
yet  it  is  at  least  a  safeguard  against  extravagance  and 
metaphysical  lunacy.  The  verdict  of  public  opinion 
on  such  topics  is  worthless :  but  it  checks  the  inevi- 
table tendency  of  closet  speculation  to  become  vision- 
ary. There  is  but  one  sort  of  scepticism  that  is 
genuine,  and  deadly  in  proportion  as  it  is  real ;  that, 
namely,  which  is  forced  upon  the  mind  by  its  experi- 
ence of  the  hollowness  of  mankind :  for  ^'  men  may 
be  read,  as  well  as  books,  too  much."  That  other 
logical  scepticism  which  is  hatched  by  over-thinking 
can  be  cured  by  an  easy  remedy,  —  ceasing  to  think. 

The  objections  urged  against  revelation  in  the 
course  of  the  Deistical  controversy  were  no  chimeras 
of  a  sickly  brain,  but  solid  charges :  the  points  brought 
into  public  discussion  were  the  points  at  which  the 
revealed  system  itself  impinges  on  human  reason. 
No  time  can  lessen  whatever  force  there  may  be  in 
the  objection  against  a  miracle :  it  is  felt  as  strongly 
in  one  century  as  in  another.  The  debate  was  not 
frivolous :  the  objections  were  worth  answering,  be- 
cause they  were  not  pitched  metaphysically  high.  To 
a  Platonizing  divine  they  looked  trivial,  —  picked  up 
in  the  street.     So  Origen  naturally  thought  "  that  a 


312  TENDENCIES    OF   RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

faith  which  could  be  shaken  by  such  objections  as 
those  of  Celsus  was  not  worth  much."  QCont.  Cels., 
Pref.  §  4.)  Just  such  were  the  objections  of  the  De- 
ists, —  such  as  come  spontaneously  into  the  thoughts 
of  practical  men,  who  never  think  systematically,  but 
who  are  not  to  be  imposed  upon  by  fancies.  Persons 
sneer  at  the  "shallow  Deism"  of  the  last  century; 
and  it  is  customary  to  reply,  that  the  antagonist 
orthodoxy  was  at  least  as  shallow.  The  truth  is,  the 
"  shallowness  "  imputed  belongs  to  the  mental  sphere 
into  wiiich  the  debate  was  for  the  time  transported. 
The  philosophy  of  the  age  was  not  above  its  mission. 
"Philosophy,"  thought  Thomas  Reid,  in  1764,  "  has 
no  other  root  but  the  principles  of  common  sense ;  it 
grows  out  of  them,  it  draws  its  nourishment  from 
them  :  severed  from  this  root,  its  honors  wither, 
its  sap  is  dried  up,  it  dies  and  rots."  (^Inquiry^  <fec., 
Intr.  §  4.)  We  in  the  present  generation  have  seen 
the  great  speculative  movement  in  Germany  die  out 
from  this  very  cause,  because  it  became  divorced  from 
the  facts  on  which  it  speculated.  Shut  up  in  the 
universities,  it  turned  inwards  on  itself,  and  preyed 
on  its  own  vitals.  It  has  only  been  neglected  by  the 
world  because  it  first  neglected  the  great  facts  in 
which  the  world  has  and  feels  an  interest. 

If  ever  there  was  a  time  when  al)stract  speculation 
was  brought  down  from  inaccessible  heights  and  com- 
pelled to  be  intelligible,  it  was  the  period  from  the 
Revolution  to  tlie  middle  of  the  last  century.  Closet 
speculation  had  been  discredited ;  the  cobwebs  of 
scholasticism  were  exploded  ;  the  age  of  feverish 
doubt  and  egotistical  introspection  had  not  arrived. 
In  that  age,  the  English  higher  education  acquired  its 
practical  aim,  —  an  aim  in  which  the  development  of 


IN  ENGLAND,   16S8-1750.  313 

the  understanding  and  the  acquisition  of  knowledge 
are  considered  secondary  objects  to  the  formation  of 
a  sound  secular  judgment,  of  the  "  scholar  and  the 
gentleman  "  of  the  old  race  of  schoolmasters.  Burke, 
contrasting  his  own  times  with  the  preceding  age, 
'^  considered  our  forefathers  as  deeper  thinkers  than 
ourselves,  because  they  set  a  higher  value  on  good 
sense  than  on  knowledge  in  various  sciences  ;  and  their 
good  sense  was  derived  very  often  from  as  much  study 
and  more  knowledge,  though  of  another  sort."  (^Rec- 
ollections by  Samuel  Rogers^  p.  81.) 

When  a  dispute  is  joined,  e.  g.^  on  the  origin  and 
composition  of  the  Gospels,  it  is,  from  the  nature  of 
the  case,  confined  to  an  inner  circle  of  biblical  scholars. 
The  mass  of  the  public  must  wait  outside,  and  receive 
the  result  on  their  authority.  The  religious  public 
were  very  reluctant  to  resign  the  verse,  1  John  v.  7  ; 
but  they  did  so  at  last  on  the  just  ground,  that  after  a 
philological  controversy,  conducted  with  open  doors, 
it  had  been  decided  to  be  spurious.  No  serious  man 
would  consider  a  popular  assembly  a  proper  court  to 
decide  on  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  or  on  the 
Hegelian  definition  of  God  ;  though  either  is  easily 
capable  of  being  held  up  to  the  ridicule  of  the  half- 
educated  from  the  platform  or  the  pulpit.  It  is  other- 
wise with  the  greater  part  of  the  points  raised  in  the 
Deistical  controversy.  It  is  not  the  speculative  reason 
of  the  few,  but  the  natural  conscience  of  the  many, 
that  questions  the  extirpation  of  the  Canaanites,  or 
the  eternity  of  hell-torments.  These  are  points  of 
divinity  that  are  at  once  fundamental  and  popular. 
Butler,  though  not  approving  "  of  entering  into  an 
argumentative  defence  of  religion  in  common  conver- 
sation," recommends  his  clergy  to  do  so  from  the  pul- 
14 


314  TENDENCIES    OF   RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

pit,  on  the  ground  that  "  such  as  are  capable  of  seeing 
the  force  of  objections,  are  capable  also  of  seeing  the 
force  of  the  answers  which  are  given  to  them."  (^Dur- 
ham Charg'e.^  If  the  philosophic  intellect  be  dissatis- 
fied with  the  answers  which  the  divines  of  that  day- 
gave  to  the  difficulties  started,  let  it  show  how,  on  the 
Rationalist  hypothesis,  these  difficulties  are  removable 
for  the  mass  of  those  who  feel  them.  The  transcen- 
dental reason  provides  an  answer  which  possibly  satis- 
fies itself;  but  to  the  common  reason  the  answer  is 
more  perplexing  than  the  difficulty  it  would  clear. 

M.  Villemain  has  remarked  in  Pascal  "  that  fore- 
sight which  revealed  to  him  so  many  objections  un- 
known to  his  generation,  and  which  inspired  him  with 
the  idea  of  fortifying  and  intrenching  positions  which 
were  not  threatened."  The  objections  which  Pascal  is 
engaged  with  are  not  only  not  those  of  his  age  :  they 
are  not  such  as  could  ever  become  general  in  any  age. 
They  are  those  of  the  higher  reason,  and  the  replies 
are  from  the  same  inspiration.  Pascal's  view  of  hu- 
man depravity  seems  to  the  ordinary  man  but  the 
despair  and  delirium  of  the  self-tormenting  ascetic. 
The  cynical  view  of  our  fallen  nature,  however,  is  at 
least  a  possible  view.  It  is  well  that  it  should  be  ex- 
plored ;  and  it  will  always  have  its  prophets,  Calvin  or 
Rochefoucauld.  But,  to  ordinary  men,  an  argument 
in  favor  of  revelation,  founded  on  such  an  assump- 
tion, will  seem  to  be  in  contradiction  to  his  daily  expe- 
rience. Pascal's  "  Pensees  "  stand  alone  ;  a  work  of 
individual  genius,  not  belonging  to  any  age.  The 
celebrity  which  the  "  Analogy  "  of  Bishop  Butler  has 
gained  is  due  to  the  opposite  reason.  It  is  no  para- 
dox to  say  that  the  merit  of  the  "  Analogy  "  lies  in  its 
want  of  origmality.     It  came  (1736)  towards  the  end 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  315 

of  the  Deistical  period.  It  is  the  result  of  twenty 
years'  study,  —  the  very  twenty  years  during  which 
the  Deistical  notions  formed  the  atmosphere  which 
educated  people  breathed.  The  objections  it  meets  are 
not  new  and  unseasoned  objections,  but  such  as  had 
worn  well,  and  had  borne  tlie  rub  of  controversy,  be- 
cause they  were  genuine.  And  it  will  be  equally  hard 
to  find  in  the  "  Analogy  "  any  topic  in  reply  which  had 
not  been  suggested  in  the  pamphlets  and  sermons  of 
the  preceding  half-century.  Like  Aristotle's  physical 
and  political  treatises,  it  is  a  resume  of  the  discus- 
sions of  more  than  one  generation.  Its  admirable 
arrangement  only  is  all  its  own.  Its  closely  packed 
and  carefully  fitted  order  speaks  of  many  year's  con- 
trivance. Its  substance  are  the  thoughts  of  a  whole 
age,  not  barely  compiled,  but  each  reconsidered  and 
digested.  Every  brick  in  the  building  has  been  rung 
before  it  has  been  relaid,  and  replaced  in  its  true  re- 
lation to  the  complex  and  various  whole.  In  more 
than  one  passage,  we  see  that  the  construction  of  this 
fabric  of  evidence,  which  "  consists  in  a  long  series  of 
things,  one  preparatory  to  and  confirming  another 
from  the  beginning  of  the  world  to  the  present  time," 
(^Durham  Charge^)  was  what  occupied  Butler's  atten- 
tion. "  Compass  of  thought,  even  amongst  persons  of 
the  lowest  rank,"  QPref.  to  Sermons,)  is  that  form  of 
the  reflective  faculty  to  which  he  is  fond  of  looking 
both  for  good  and  evil.  He  never  will  forget  that 
"justice  must  be  done  to  every  part  of  a  subject,  when 
we  are  considering  it."  (^Sermon  iv.)  Harmony  and 
law  and  order  he  will  suppose,  even  where  he  does 
not  find.  The  tendency  of  his  reason  was  that  which 
Bacon  indicates :  "  The  spirit  of  a  man,  being  of  aii 
equal  and  uniform  substance,  doth  usually  suppose  and 


316  TENDENCIES    OF   RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

feign  in  nature  a  greater  equality  and  uniformity  than 
is  in  truth."  (^Advancement  of  Learning.')  This  is 
probably  the  true  explanation  of  the  "  obscurity  "  which 
persons  sometimes  complain  of  in  Butler's  style.  The 
reason  or  matter  he  is  producing  is  palpable  and  plain 
enough  ;  but  he  is  so  solicitous  to  find  its  due  place 
in  the  then  stage  of  the  argument,  so  scrupulous  to 
give  it  its  exact  weight  and  no  more,  so  careful  in  ar- 
ranging its  situation  relatively  to  the  other  members 
of  the  proof,  that  a  reader,  who  does  not  bear  in  mind 
that  "  the  effect  of  the  whole  "  is  what  the  architect  is 
preparing,  is  apt  to  become  embarrassed,  and  to  think 
that  obscurity  which  is  really  logical  precision.  Tlie 
generality  of  men  are  better  qualified  for  understand- 
ing particulars  one  by  one,  than  for  taking  a  compre- 
hensive view  of  the  whole.  The  philosophical  breadth 
which  we  miss  in  Butler's  mode  of  conceiving  is  com- 
pensated for  by  this  judicial  breadth  in  his  mode  of 
arguing,  which  gives  its  place  to  each  consideration, 
but  regards  rather  the  cumulative  force  of  the  whole. 
Many  writers  before  Butler  had  insisted  on  this  char- 
acter of  the  Christian  evidences.  Dr.  Jenkin,  Mar- 
garet Professor  at  Cambridge,  whose  "  Reasonableness 
and  Certainty  of  the  Christian  Religion "  was  the 
"  Paley  "  of  divinity  students  then,  says,  "  There  is  an 
excellency  in  every  part  of  our  religion,  separately 
considered:  but  the  strength  and  vigor  of  each  part 
is  in  the  relation  it  has  to  the  rest ;  and  the  several 
parts  must  be  taken  altogether,  if  we  would  have  a 
true  knowledge  and  make  a  just  estimate  of  the  whole." 
^Reasonableness,  &c.,  part  ii.  Pref.  1721.)  But  But- 
ler does  not  merely  take  the  hint  from  others :  it  is 
so  entirely  the  guiding  rule  of  his  hand  and  pen,  that 
it  would  appear  to  have  been  forced  upon  him  by 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  317 

some  peculiar  experience  of  his  own.  It  was  in  soci- 
ety, and  not  in  his  study,  that  he  had  learned  the 
weight  of  the  Deistical  arguments.  At  the  Queen's 
philosophical  parties,  where  these  topics  were  can- 
vassed with  earnestness  and  freedom,  he  must  have 
often  felt  the  impotence  of  reply  in  detail,  and  seen, 
as  he  says,  "  How  impossible  it  must  be,  in  a  cursory 
conversation,  to  unite  all  this  into  one  argument,  and 
represent  it  as  it  ought."  (^Durham  Charge.)  Hence 
his  own  labor  to  work  up  his  materials  into  a  con- 
nected framework,  —  a  methodized  encyclopaedia  of 
all  the  extant  topics. 

Not  that  he  did  not  pay  attention  to  the  parts. 
Butler's  eminence  over  his  contemporary  apologists 
is  seen  in  nothing  more  than  in  that  superior  sagacity 
which  rejects  the  use  of  any  plea  that  is  not  entitled 
to  consideration  singly.  In  the  other  evidential  books 
of  the  time,  we  find  a  miscellaneous  crowd  of  sugges- 
tions of  very  various  value  ;  never  fanciful,  but  often 
trivial ;  undeniable,  but  weak  as  proof  of  the  point 
they  are  brought  to  prove.  Butler  seems  as  if  he  had 
sifted  these  books,  and  retained  all  that  was  solid  in 
them.  If  he  built  with  brick,  and  not  with  marble, 
it  was  because  he  was  not  thinking  of  reputation,  but 
of  utility  and  an  immediate  purpose.  Mackintosh 
wished  Butler  had  had  the  elegance  and  ornament  of 
Berkeley.  They  would  have  been  sadly  out  of  place. 
There  was  not  a  spark  of  the  littleness  of  literary  am- 
bition about  him.  "  There  was  a  certain  naturalness 
in  Butler's  mind,  which  took  him  straight  to  the  ques- 
tions on  which  men  differed  around  him.  Generally, 
it  is  safer  to  prove  what  no  one  denies,  and  easier 
to  explain  difficulties  which  no  one  has  ever  felt.  A 
quiet  reputation,  is  best  obtained  in  the  literary  quces- 


818  TENDENCIES   OF  RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

tmncidcB  of  important  subjects.  But  a  simple  and 
straiglitforward  man  studies  great  topics  because  be 
feels  a  want  of  tlie  knowledge  wbicb  tbey  contain. 
He  goes  straigbt  to  tbe  real  doubts  and  fundamental 
discrepancies,  —  to  those  on  which  it  is  easy  to  excite 
odium,  and  difficult  to  give  satisfaction :  he  leaves  to 
others  the  amusing,  skirmishing,  and  superficial  litera- 
ture accessory  to  such  studies.  Thus  there  is  nothing 
light  in  Butler :  all  is  grave,  serious,  and  essential ; 
nothing  else  would  be  characteristic  of  him."  (Bage- 
hot,  EsH?nates,  &c.,  p.  189.)  Though  he  has  rifled  their 
books,  he  makes  no  display  of  reading.  In  the  "  Anal- 
ogy," he  never  names  the  author  he  is  answering. 
In  the  "  Sermons,"  he  quotes  directly  only  Hobbes, 
Shaftesbury,  Wollaston,  Rouchefoucauld,  and  Fenelon. 
From  his  writings,  we  should  infer  that  his  reading 
was  not  promiscuous,  even  had  he  not  himself  given 
us  to  understand  how  much  opportunity  he  had  of 
seeing  the  idleness  and  waste  of  time  occasioned  by 
light  reading.  (^Servians,  Pref.) 

This  popular  appeal  to  the  common  reason  of  men, 
which  is  one  characteristic  of  the  Rationalist  period, 
was '  a  first  effort  of  English  theology  to  find  a  new 
basis  for  doctrine  which  should  replace  those  foun- 
dations which  had  failed  it.  The  Reformation  had 
destroyed  the  authority  of  the  Church  upon  which 
revelation  had  so  long  rested.  The  attempt  of  the 
Laudian  divines  to  substitute  the  voice  of  the  national 
Clnirch  for  that  of  the  Church  universal  had  met  with 
only  very  partial  and  temporary  success.  When  the 
Revolution  of  1688  introduced  the  freedom  of  the  press 
and  a  general  toleration,  even  that  artificial  authority, 
which,  by  ignoring  nonconformity,  had  produced  an 
appearance  of  unity,  and  erected  a  conventional  stand- 


IN  ENGLAND,   1G88-1750.  319 

ard  of  truth  and  falsehood,  fell  to  the  ground.  The 
old  and  venerated  authority  had  been  broken  by  the 
Reformation.  The  new  authority  of  the  Anglican 
establishment  had  existed  in  theory  only,  and  never 
in  fact ;  and  the  Revolution  had  crushed  the  theory, 
which  was  now  confined  to  a  small  band  of  non-jurors. 
In  reaction  against  Anglican  "  authority,"  the  Puritan 
movement  had  tended  to  rest  faith  and  doctrine  upon 
the  inward  light  within  each  man's  breast.  This 
tendency  of  the  neiv  Puritanism,  which  we  may  call 
Independency,  was  a  development  of  the  old,  purely 
scriptural,  Puritanism  of  Presbyterianism.  But  it  was 
its  natural  and  necessary  development.  It  was  a  con- 
sequence of  the  controversy  with  the  establishment; 
for  both  the  Church  and  Dissent  agreed  in  acknowl- 
edging Scripture  as  their  foundation,  and  the  contro- 
versy turned  on  the  interpreter  of  Scripture.  Nor 
was  the  doctrine  of  the  inner  light  which  individual- 
ized the  basis  of  faith  confined  to  the  Nonconformists : 
it  was  shared  by  a  section  of  the  Church,  of  whom 
Cudworth  is  the  type  ;  to  whom  "  Scripture  faith  is 
not  a  mere  believing  of  historical  things,  and  upon 
artificial  arguments  or  testimonies  only,  but  a  certain 
higher  and  diviner  power  in  the  soul  that  peculiarly 
correspondeth  with  the  Deity."  ^Intellectual  System, 
Pref.)  The  inner  light,  or  witness  of  the  Spirit  in 
the  soul  of  the  individual  believer,  had,  in  its  turn, 
fallen  into  discredit  through  the  extravagances  to 
which  it  had  given  birth.  It  was  disowned  alike  by 
Churchmen  and  Nonconformists,  who  agree  in  speak- 
ing with  contemptuous  pity  of  the  ''  sectaries  of  the  last 
age."  The  reaction  against  individual  religion  led  to 
this  first  attempt  to  base  revealed  truth  on  reason  ; 
and,  for  the  purpose  for  which  reason  was  now  wanted, 


320  TENDENCIES   OF   KELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

the  liiglicr  or  pliilosophic  reason  was  far  less  fitted 
than  that  universal  understanding  in  which  all  men 
can  claim  a  share.  The  "  inner  light,"  which  had  made 
each  man  the  dictator  of  his  own  creed,  had  exploded 
in  ecclesiastical  anarchy.  The  appeal  from  the  frantic 
discord  of  the  enthusiasts  to  reason  must  needs  be, 
not  to  an  arbitrary  or  particular  reason  in  each  man, 
but  to  a  common  sense,  a  natural  discernment,  a  reason 
of  universal  obligation.  As  it  was  to  be  universally 
binding,  it  must  be  generally  recognizable.  It  must 
be  something  not  confined  to  the  select  few,  a  gift  of 
the  self-styled  elect,  but  a  faculty  belonging  to  all  men 
of  sound  mind  and  average  capacity.  Truth  must  be 
accessible  to  "  the  bulk  of  mankind."  It  was  a  time 
when  the  only  refuge  from  the  hopeless  maze  or  wild 
chaos  seemed  to  be  the  rational  consent  of  the  sen- 
sible and  unprejudiced.  "  Have  the  bulk  of  mankind," 
writes  Locke,  "  no  other  guide  but  accident  and  blind 
chance  to  conduct  them  to  their  happiness  or  misery  ? 
Are  the  current  opinions  and  licensed  guides  of  every 
country  sufficient  evidence  and  security  to  every  man 
to  venture  his  great  concernments  on  ?  Or  can  those 
be  the  certain  and  infallible  oracles  and  standards 
of  truth  which  teach  one  thing  in  Christendom,  and 
another  in  Turkey  ?  Or  shall  a  poor  countryman  be 
eternally  happy  for  having  the  chance  to  be  born  in 
Italy  ?  or  a  day-laborer  be  unavoidably  lost  because 
he  had  the  ill-luck  to  be  born  in  England  ?  How  ready 
some  men  may  be  to  say  some  of  these  things,  I  will 
not  here  examine  ;  but  this  I  am  sure,  that  men  must 
allow  one  or  other  of  these  to  be  true,  or  else  grant 
that  God  has  furnished  men  with  faculties  sufficient  to 
direct  them  in  the  way  they  should  take,  if  they  will 
"but  seriously  employ  them  that  way,  when  their  ordi- 


IN  ENGLAND,  1688-1750.  321 

nary  vocations  allow  them  the  leisure."    (^Essa?/,  book 
iv.  chap.  19,  §  3.) 

Such  an  attempt  to  secure  a  foundation  in  a  new 
consensus  will  obviously  forfeit  depth  to  gain  in  com- 
prehensiveness. This  phase  of  Rationalism — Ration- 
alismus  vulgaris  —  resigns  the  transcendental  that  it 
may  gain  adherents.  It  wants,  not  the  elect,  but  all 
men.  It  cannot  afford  to  embarrass  itself  with  the 
attempt  to  prove  what  all  may  not  be  required  to  re- 
ceive. Accordingly,  there  can  be  no  mysteries  in 
Christianity.  The  word  /jLvarrjpiov,  as  Archbishop 
Whately  points  out,  ("  Essays,"  2d  series,  5th  ed., 
p.  288,)  always  means  in  the  New  Testament,  not 
that  which  is  incomprehensible,  but  that  which  was 
once  a  secret ;  though,  now  it  is  revealed,  it  is  no 
longer  so.  Whately,  who  elsewhere  (Paley's  "  Evi- 
dences," new  edition)  speaks  so  contemptuously  of  the 
"  cast-off  clothes  of  the  Deists,  is  here  but  adopting  the 
argument  of  Toland  in  his  "  Christianity  not  Myste- 
rious." (Cf.  Balguy,  Discourses,  p.  237.)  There 
needs  no  special  "  preparation  of  heart "  to  receive  the 
gospel :  the  evidences  of  religion  are  sufficient  to  con- 
vince every  unprejudiced  inquirer.  Unbelievers  are 
blameworthy  as  deaf  to  an  argument  which  is  so  plain 
that  they  cannot  but  understand  it,  and  so  convincing 
that  they  cannot  but  be  aware  of  its  force.  Under 
such  self-imposed  conditions,  religious  proof  seems  to 
divest  itself  of  all  that  is  divine,  and,  out  of  an  excess 
of  accommodation  to  the  recipient  faculty,  to  cease  to 
be  a  transforming  thought.  Rationalism  can  object 
to  the  old  sacramental  system,  that  it  degrades  a  spir- 
itual influence  into  a  physical  effect.  But  Rational- 
ism itself,  in  order  to  make  the  proof  of  revelation 
universal,  is  obliged  to  resolve  religion  into  the  moral 
14*  u 


822  TENDENCIES   OF   RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

government  of  God  by  rewards  and  punishments,  and 
especially  tlie  latter.  It  is  this  anthropomorphic  con- 
ception of  God  as  the  "  Governor  of  the  universe  " 
which  is  presented  to  us  in  the  theology  of  the  Hano- 
verian divines,  —  a  theology  which  excludes  on  prin- 
ciple not  only  all  that  is  poetical  in  life,  but  all  that  is 
sublime  in  religious  speculation.  "  To  degrade  relig- 
ion to  the  position  of  a  mere  purveyor  of  motive  to 
morality,  is  not  more  dishonorable  to  the  ethics  which 
must  ask  than  to  the  religion  which  will  render  such 
assistance."  (A.  J.  Yaughan,  Essays,  vol.  i.  p.  61.) 
It  is  this  character  that  makes  the  reading  even  of  the 
''Analogy"  so  depressing  to  the  soul;  as  Tholuck 
Qi  Yermischte  Schriften,"  i.  193)  says  of  it,  "  We 
weary  of  a  long  journey  on  foot,  especially  through 
deep  sand."  Human  nature  is  not  only  humbled,  but 
crushed.  It  is  a  common  charge  against  the  eigh- 
teenth-century divines,  that  they  exalt  man  too  much 
by  insisting  on  the  dignity  of  human  nature,  and  its 
native  capacities  for  virtue.  This  was  the  charge 
urged  against  the  orthodox  by  the  Evangelical  pulpit. 
But  only  very  superficial  and  incompetent  critics  of 
doctrine  can  suppose  that  man  is  exalted  by  being 
thrown  upon  his  moral  faculties.  The  history  of  doc- 
trine teaches  a  very  different  lesson.  Those  periods 
when  morals  have  been  represented  as  the  proper 
study  of  man,  and  his  only  business,  have  been  pe- 
riods of  spiritual  abasement  and  poverty.  The  denial 
of  scientific  theology,  the  keeping  in  the  background 
the  transcendental  objects  of  faith,  and  the  restriction 
of  our  faculties  to  the  regulation  of  our  conduct, 
seem,  indeed,  to  be  placing  man  in  the  foreground  of 
the  picture, — to  make  human  nature  the  centre  round 
which  all  things  revolve.     But  they  do  so,  not  by  ex- 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  323 

alting  the  visible,  but  by  materializing  the  invisible. 
"  If  there  be  a  sphere  of  knowledge  level  to  our 
capacities,  and  of  the  utmost  importance  to  us,  we 
ought  surely  to  apply  ourselves  with  all  diligence  to 
this,  our  proper  business  ;  and  esteem  everything  else 
nothing,  nothing  as  to  us,  in  comparison  of  it.  .  .  . 
Our  province  is  virtue  and  religion,  life  and  manners ; 
the  science  of  improving  the  temper,  and  making  the 
heart  better.  This  is  the  field  assigned  to  us  to  cul- 
tivate :  how  much  it  has  lam  neglected  is  indeed 
astonishing.  ...  He  who  should  find  out  one  rule  to 
assist  us  in  this  work  would  deserve  infinitely  better 
of  mankind  than  all  the  improvers  of  other  knowledge 
put  together.  QSermon  xv.)  This  is  the  theology  of 
Butler  and  his  contemporaries  ;  a  utilitarian  theology, 
like  the  Baconian  philosophy,  contemning  all  employ- 
ment of  mental  power  that  does  not  bring  in  fruit.- 
"  Intellectui  non  plumae,  sed  plumbum  addendum  et 
pondera,"  (Bacon,  "  Nov.  Or.,"  i.  104,)  might  be  its 
device. 

In  the  "  Analogy  "  it  is  the  same.  His  term  of 
comparison,  the  "  constitution  and  course  of  nature,''^ 
is  not  what  we  should  understand  by  that  term  ;  not 
what  science  can  disclose  to  us  of  the  laws  of  the 
cosmos,  but  a  narrow  observation  of  what  men  do 
in  ordinary  life.  We  see  what  he  means  by  the 
"  constitution  of  things,"  by  his  saying  (Sermon  xv.) 
that  "  the  writings  of  Solomon  are  very  much  taken 
up  with  reflections  upon  human  nature  and  human 
life  ;  to  which  he  hath  added,  in  Ecclesiastes,  reflec- 
tions upon  the  constitution  of  things."  In  part  i. 
chap.  3,  of  the  "  Analogy,"  he  compares  the  moral 
government  of  God  with  the  natural:  the  distinction 
is  perhaps  from  Balguy  ("  Divine  Rectitude,"  p.  39)  ; 


324  TENDENCIES   OF  RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

that  is  to  say,  one  part  of  natural  religion  with  another ; 
for  the  disthiction  vanishes,  except  upon  a  very  con- 
ventional sense  of  the  term  "  moral."  Altogether,  we 
miss  in  these  divines  not  only  distinct  philosophical 
conceptions,  but  a  scientific  use  of  terms.  Dr.  Whe- 
well  considers  that  Butler  shunned  "  the  appearance 
of  technical  terms  for  the  elements  of  our  moral  con- 
stitution on  which  he  speculated,"  and  thinks  that  he 
"  was  driven  to  indirect  modes  of  expression."  (^Moral 
Philosophy  in  Englmid^  p.  109.)  The  truth  is,  that 
Butler  uses  the  language  of  his  day  upon  the  topics 
on  which  he  writes.  The  technical  terms  and  strict 
logical  forms  which  had  been  adhered  to  by  the  writ- 
ers, small  as  well  as  great,  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
had  been  disused  as  pedantic ;  banished  first  from 
literature,  and  then  from  education.  They  did  not 
appear  in  style,  because  they  did  not  form  part  of  the 
mental  habit  of  the  writers.  Butler  does  not,  as  Dr. 
Whewell  supposes,  think  in  one  form,  and  write  in 
another,  out  of  condescension  to  his  readers :  he 
thinks  in  the  same  language  in  which  lie  and  those 
around  him  speak.  Mr.  Hort's  remark,  that  "  But- 
ler's writings  are  stoic  to  the  core,  in  the  true  and  an- 
cient sense  of  the  word,"  ("  Cambridge  Essays,"  1856, 
p.  337,)  must  be  extended  to  their  style.  The  English 
style  of  philosophical  writing  in  the  Hanoverian  period 
is,  to  the  English  of  the  seventeenth  century,  as  the 
Greek  of  Epictetus,  Antoninus,  or  Plutarch,  is  to  that 
of  Aristotle ;  and  for  the  same  reason.  The  English 
stoics  and  their  Greek  predecessors,  were  practical 
men,  who  moralized  in  a  practical  way  on  the  facts  of 
common  life,  and  in  the  language  of  common  life. 
Neither  the  rhetorical  schools  of  the  Empire  nor  the 
universities  of  England  any  longer  taught  the  correct 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  325 

use  of  metaphysical  language.  To  imitate  classical 
Latin  was  become  the  chief  aim  of  the  university 
man  in  his  public  exercises  ;  and  precision  of  lan- 
guage became,  under  that  discipline,  very  speedily  a 
lost  art. 

Upon  the  whole,  the  writings  of  that  period  are 
serviceable  to  us  chiefly  as  showing  what  can  and 
what  cannot  be  effected  by  common-sense  thinking 
in  theology.  It  is  of  little  consequence  to  inquire 
whether  or  not  the  objections  of  the  Deists  and  the 
Socinians  were  removed  by  the  answers  brought  to 
meet  them.  Perhaps,  on  the  whole,  we  might  be 
borne  out  in  saying  that  the  defence  is  at  least  as 
good  as  the  attack  ;  and  so,  that,  even  on  the  ground 
of  common  reason,  the  Christian  evidences  may  be 
arranged  in  such  a  way  as  to  balance  the  common- 
sense  improbability  of  the  supernatural,  —  that  "  there 
are  three  chances  to  one  for  revelation,  and  only  two 
against  it."  (^Tracts  for  the  Times,  No.  85.)  Had  not 
circumstances  given  a  new  direction  to  religious  in- 
terests, the  Deistical  controversy  might  have  gone  on 
indefinitely,  and  the  "  amebean  strain  of  objection 
and  reply,  et  cantare  pares  et  respondere  parati,^^  have 
been  prolonged  to  this  day,  without  any  other  result. 
But  that  result  forces  on  the  mind  the  suggestion,  that 
either  religious  faith  has  no  existence,  or  that  it  must 
be  to  be  reached  by  some  other  road  than  that  of  the 
"  trial  of  the  witnesses."  It  is  a  reductio  ad  absurdum 
of  common-sense  philosophy,  of  home-baked  theology, 
when  we  find  that  the  result  of  the  whole  is,  that  "  it 
is  safer  to  believe  in  a  God,  lest,  if  there  should  hap- 
pen to  be  one,  he  might  send  us  to  hell  for  denying 
his  existence."  (Maurice,  Essays,  p.  236.)  If  a  religion 
be  wanted  which  shall  debase  instead  of  elevating, 


826  TENDENCIES   OF  RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

this  should  be  its  creed.  If  the  religious  history  of 
the  eighteenth  century  proves  anything,  it  is  this  : 
That  good  sense,  the  best  good  sense,  when  it  sets  to 
work  with  the  materials  of  human  nature  and  Scrip- 
ture to  construct  a  religion,  will  find  its  way  to  an 
ethical  code,  irreproachable  in  its  contents,  and  based 
on  a  just  estimate  and  wise  observation  of  the  facts 
of  life,  ratified  by  divine  sanctions  in  the  shape  of 
hope  and  fear,  of  future  rewards  and  penalties  of  obe- 
dience and  disobedience.  This  the  eighteenth  century 
did,  and  did  well.  It  has  enforced  the  truths  of  natu- 
ral morality  with  a  solidity  of  argument,  and  variety  of 
proof,  which  they  have  not  received  since  the  Stoical 
epoch,  if  then ;  but  there  its  ability  ended.  When 
it  came  to  the  supernatural  part  of  Christianity,  its 
embarrassment  began.  It  was  forced  to  keep  it  as 
much  in  the  background  as  possible,  or  t^o  bolster  it 
up  by  lame  and  inadequate  reasonings.  The  philos- 
ophy of  common  sense  had  done  its  own  work :  it 
attempted  more,  only  to  show,  by  its  failure,  that  some 
higher  organon  was  needed  for  the  establishment  of 
supernatural  truth.  The  career  of  the  evidential 
school,  its  success  and  failure,  —  its  success  in  vin- 
dicating the  ethical  part  of  Christianity  and  the 
regulative  aspect  of  revealed  truth,  its  failure  in  estab- 
lishing the  supernatural  and  speculative  part,  —  have 
enriched  the  history  of  doctrine  with  a  complete  refu- 
tation of  that  method  as  an  instrument  of  theological 
mvestigation. 

This  judgment,  however,  must  not  be  left  unbal- 
anced by  a  consideration  on  the  other  side.  It  will 
hardly  be  supposed  that  the  drift  of  what  has  been 
said  is,  that  common  sense  is  out  of  place  in  religion 
or  in  any  other  matter.     The  defect  of  the  eighteenth 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-3750.  827 

century  theology  was  not  in  having  too  much  good 
sense,  but  in  having  nothing  besides.  In  the  present 
day,  when  a  godless  orthodoxy  threatens,  as  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  to  extinguish  religious  thought 
altogether,  and  nothing  is  allowed  in  the  Church  of 
England  but  the  formulae  of  past  thinkings,  which 
have  long  lost  all  sense  of  any  kind,  it  may  seem  out 
of  season  to  be  bringing  forward  a  misapplication  of 
common  sense  in  a  bygone  age.  There  are  times  and 
circumstances  when  religious  ideas  will  be  greatly 
benefited  by  being  submitted  to  the  rough-and-ready 
tests  by  which  busy  men  try  what  comes  in  their 
way,  —  by  being  made  to  stand  their  trial,  and  be 
freely  canvassed,  coram  populo.  As  poetry  is  not  for 
the  critics,  so  religion  is  not  for  the  theologians. 
"When  it  is  stiffened  into  phrases,  and  these  phrases 
are  declared  to  be  objects  of  reverence,  but  not  of 
intelligence,  it  is  on  the  way  to  become  a  useless 
encumbrance,  —  the  rubbish  of  the  past,  —  blocking 
the  road.  Theology  then  retires  into  the  position 
it  occupies  in  the  Church  of  Rome  at  present,  —  an 
unmeaning  frostwork  of  dogma,  out  of  all  relation  to 
the  actual  history  of  man.  In  that  system,  theologi- 
cal virtue  is  an  artificial  life  quite  distinct  from  the 
moral  virtues  of  real  life.  "  Parmi  nous,"  says  Remu- 
sat,  "  un  homme  religieux  est  trop  souvent  un  homme 
qui  se  croit  entoure  d'ennemis,  qui  voit  avec  defiance 
ou  scandale  les  evenements  et  les  institutions  du 
siecle,  qui  se  desole  d'etre  nd  dans  les  jours  maudits, 
et  qui  a  besoin  d'un  grand  fond  de  bonte  innde  pour 
empecher  ses  pieuses  aversions  de  devenir  de  mor- 
telles  haines."  This  system  is  equally  fatal  to  popular 
morality  and  to  religious  theory.  It  locks  up  virtue 
in  the  cloister,  and  theology  in  the  library.     It  orig- 


828  TENDENCIES    OF   RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

inatcs  caste  sanctity  and  a  traditional  philosophy. 
The  ideal  of  holiness  striven  after  may  once  have 
been  lofty  ;  the  philosophy  now  petrified  into  tradition 
may  once  have  been  a  vital  faith :  but,  now  that  they 
are  withdrawn  from  public  life,  they  have  ceased 
to  be  social  influences.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
eighteenth  century  exhibits  human  attainment  lev- 
elled to  the  lowest  secular  model  of  prudence  and 
honesty,  but  still,  such  as  it  was,  proposed  to  all 
men  as  their  rule  of  life.  Practical  life  as  it  was, 
was  the  theme  of  the  pulpit,  the  press,  and  the  draw- 
ing-room. Its  theory  of  life  was  not  lofty  ;  but  it  was 
true  as  far  as  it  went.  It  did  not  substitute  a  facti- 
tious phraseology,  the  pass-words  of  the  modern  pul- 
pit, for  the  simple  facts  of  life,  but  called  things  by 
their  right  names.  "  Nullum  numen  habes  si  absit 
prudentia  "  was  its  motto,  —  not  denying  the  numen, 
but  bringing  him  very  close  to  the  individual  person, 
as  his  "  moral  governor."  The  prevailing  philosophy 
was  not  a  profound  metaphysic,  but  it  was  a  soundly 
based  arrangement  of  the  facts  of  society ;  it  was  not 
a  scheme  of  the  sciences,  but  a  manual  for  every-day 
use.  Nothing  of  the  wild  spirit  of  universal  negation 
which  was  spread  over  the  Continent  fifty  years  later 
belonged  to  the  solid  Rationalism  of  this  period.  The 
human  understanding  wished  to  be  satisfied,  and  did 
not  care  to  believe  that  of  which  it  could  not  see  the 
substantial  ground.  The  reason  was  coming  slowly 
to  see  that  it  had  duties  which  it  could  not  devolve 
upon  others ;  that  a  man  must  think  for  himself,  pro- 
tect his  own  rights^  and  administer  his  own  affairs. 
The  reason  was  never  less  extravagant  than  in  this  its 
first  essay  of  its  strength.  Its  demands  were  modest ; 
it  was  easily  satisfied,  —  far  too  easily,  we  must  think, 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  329 

when  we  look  at  some  of  the  reasonings  which  passed 
as  valid. 

The  habits  of  controversy  in  which  they  lived  de- 
ceived the  belligerents  themselves.  The  controversial 
form  of  their  theology,  which  has  been  fatal  to  its 
credit  since,  was  no  less  detrimental  to  its  soundness 
at  the  time.  They  could  not  discern  the  line  between 
what  they  did  and  what  they  could  not  prove.  The 
polemical  temper  deforms  the  books  they  have  writ- 
ten. Literature  was,  indeed,  partially  refined  from  the 
coarser  scurrilities  with  which  the  Caroline  divines, 
a  century  before,  had  assailed  their  Romanist  oppo- 
nents ;  but  there  is  still  an  air  of  vulgarity  about  the 
polite  writing  of  the  age,  which  the  divines  adopt 
along  with  its  style.  The  cassocked  divine  assumes 
the  airs  of  the  "  roaring  blade,"  and  ruffles  it  on  the 
mall  with  a  horsewhip  under  his  arm.  Warburton's 
stock  argument  is  a  threat  to  cudgel  any  one  who  dis- 
putes his  opinion.  All  that  can  be  said  is,  that  this 
was  a  habit  of  treating  your  opponent  which  pervaded 
society.  At  a  much  later  period.  Person  complains, 
"  In  these  ticklish  times,  .  .  .  talk  of  religion,  it  is 
odds  but  you  have  infidel,  blasphemer,  atheist,  or 
schismatic,  thundered  in  your  ears ;  touch  upon  pol- 
itics, you  will  be  in  luck  if  you  are  only  charged  with 
a  tendency  to  treason.  Nor  is  the  innocence  of  your 
intention  any  safeguard.  It  is  not  the  publication 
that  shows  the  character  of  the  author,  but  the  charac- 
ter of  the  author  that  shows  the  tendency  of  the  pub- 
lication." (Luard's  "  Person,"  Camb.  Essays,  1857.) 
A  license  of  party  vituperation  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons existed  from  the  time  of  the  opposition  to  Wal- 
pole  onwards,  which  has  long  been  banished  by  more 


330  TENDENCIES   OF  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

luimane  manners.  "  The  men  who  took  a  foremost 
part  seemed  to  be  intent  on  disparaging  eacli  otlier, 
and  proving  that  neither  possessed  any  qualification 
of  wisdom,  knowledge,  or  public  virtue.  .  .  .  Epi- 
thets of  reproach  were  lavished  personally  on  Lord 
North,  wliich  were  applicable  only  to  the  vilest  and 
most  contemptible  of  mankind."  (Massey,  Hist,  of 
England,  ii.  218.) 

Were  this  blustering  language  a  blemish  of  style, 
and  nothing  more,  it  would  taint  their  books  with  vul- 
garity as  literature,  but  it  would  not  vitiate  their  mat- 
ter. But  the  fault  reaches  deeper  than  skin-deep.  It 
is  a  most  serious  drawback  on  the  good  sense  of  the 
age,  that  it  wanted  justice  in  its  estimate  of  persons. 
They  were  no  more  capable  of  judging  their  friends 
than  their  foes.  In  Pope's  satires  there  is  no  medium, 
—  our  enemies  combine  all  the  odious  vices,  however 
incongruous  ;  our  friends  have  "  every  virtue  under 
heaven."  We  hear  sometimes  of  Pope's  peculiar 
"  malignity  ;  "  but  he  was  only  doing  what  every  one 
around  him  was  doing,  only  with  a  greatly  superior 
literary  skill.  Their  savage  invective  against  each 
other  is  not  a  morally  worse  feature  than  the  style 
of  fulsome  compliment  in  which  friends  address  each 
other.  The  private  correspondence  of  intimate  friends 
betrays  an  unwholesome  insincerity,  which  contrasts 
strangely  w^ith  their  general  manliness  of  character. 
The  burly  intellect  of  Warburton  displays  an  appetite 
for  flattery  as  insatiable  as  that  of  Miss  Seward  and 
her  coterie. 

This  habit  of  exaggerating  both  good  and  evi]  the 
divines  share  with  the  other  writers  of  the  time.  But 
theological  literature,  as  a  written  debate,  had  a  form 
of  malignant  imputation  peculiar  to  itself.      This  is 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  331 

one  arising  out  of  the  rationalistic  fiction  which  both 
parties  assumed  ;  viz.,  that  their  respective  beliefs 
were  determined  by  an  impartial  inquiry  into  the  evi- 
dence. The  orthodox  writers  considered  this  evidence 
so  clear  and  certain  for  their  own  conclusions,  that 
they  could  account  for  its  not  seeming  so  to  others, 
only  by  the  supposition  of  some  moral  obliquity  which 
darkened  the  understanding  in  such  cases.  Hence 
the  obnoxious  assumption  of  the  divines,  that  the  De- 
ists were  men  of  corrupt  morals  ;  and  the  retort  of 
the  infidel  writers,  that  the  clergy  were  hired  advo- 
cates. Moral  imputation,  which  is  justly  banished 
from  legal  argument,  seems  to  find  a  proper  place  in 
theological.  Those  Christian  Deists,  who,  like  Toland 
or  Collins,  approached  most  nearly  in  their  belief  to 
revelation,  were  treated,  not  better,  but  worse,  by  the 
orthodox  champions  ;  their  larger  admissions  being 
imputed  to  disingenuousness  or  calculated  reserve. 
This  stamp  of  advocacy  which  was  impressed  on 
English  theology  at  the  Reformation  —  its  first  work 
of  consideration  was  an  "  Apology  "  —  it  has  not, 
to  this  day,  shaken  off.  Our  theologians,  with  rare 
exceptions,  do  not  penetrate  below  the  surface  of 
their  subject,  but  are  engaged  in  defending  or  vindi- 
cating it.  The  current  phrases,  of  "  the  bulwarks  of 
our  faith,"  "  dangerous  to  Christianity,"  are  but  in- 
stances of  the  habitual  position  in  which  we  assume 
ourselves  to  stand.  Even  more  philosophic  minds 
cannot  get  rid  of  the  idea,  that  theology  is  polemical. 
Theological  study  is  still  the  study  of  topics  of  de- 
fence. Even  Prof.  Eraser  can  exhort  us,  "  that,  by 
the  study  of  these  topics,  we  might  not  merely  disarm 
the  enemies  of  religion  of  what  in  other  times  has 
been,  and  will  coi;itinue  to  be,  a  favorite  weapon  of 


332  TENDENCIES    OF   RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

assault ;  but  wc  might  even  convert  that  weapon  into 
an  instrument  of  use  in  the  Christian  service."  (^Es- 
saijs  in  Philosophy^  p.  4.)  "  Modern  science,"  as  it  is 
called,  is  recommended  to  the  young  divine,  because 
in  it  he  may  find  means  of  "  confuting  infidelity." 

A  little  consideration  will  show  that  the  grounds 
on  which  advocacy  before  a  legal  tribunal  rests  make 
it  inappropriate  in  theological  reasoning.  It  is  not 
pretended  that  municipal  law  is  co-extensive  with 
universal  law,  and  therefore  incapable  of  admitting 
right  on  both  sides.  It  is  allowed  that  the  natural 
right  may  be,  at  times,  on  one  side,  and  the  legal  title 
on  the  other ;  not  to  mention  the  extreme  case  where 
"  communis  error  facit  jus."  The  advocate  is  not 
there  to  supply  all  the  materials  out  of  which  the 
judge  is  to  form  his  decision,  but  only  one  side  of  the 
case.  He  is  the  mere  representative  of  his  client's 
interests,  and  has  not  to  discuss  the  abstract  merits  of 
the  juridical  point  which  may  be  involved.  He  does 
not  undertake  to  show  that  the  law  is  conformable  to 
natural  right,  but  to  establish  the  condition  of  his 
client  relatively  to  the  law.  But  the  rational  defender 
of  the  faith  has  no  place  in  his  system  for  the  varia- 
ble, or  the  indifferent,  or  the  non-natural.  He  pro- 
ceeds on  the  supposition,  that  the  whole  system  of  the 
Church  is  the  one  and  exclusively  true  expression  of 
reason  upon  the  subject  on  which  it  legislates.  He 
claims  for  the  whole  of  received  knowledge  what  the 
jurist  claims  for  international  law,  —  to  be  a  universal 
science.  He  lays  before  us,  on  the  one  hand,  the  tra- 
ditional canon  or  symbol  of  doctrine ;  on  the  other 
hand,  he  teaches  that  the  free  use  of  reason  upon  the 
facts  of  nature  and  Scripture  is  the  real  mode  by 
which  this  traditional  symbol  is  arrived  at.     To  show, 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  333 

then,  that  the  candid  pursuit  of  truth  leads  every  im- 
partial intellect  to  the  Anglican  conclusion,  was  the 
task  which,  on  their  theory  of  religious  proof,  their 
theology  had  to  undertake.  The  procees,  accordingly, 
should  have  been  analogous  to  that  of  the  jurist  or 
legislator  with  regard  to  the  internal  evidence,  and 
to  that  of  the  judge  with  regard  to  the  external  evi- 
dence. If  theological  argument  forgets  the  judge 
and  assumes  the  advocate,  or  betrays  the  least  bias  to 
one  side,  the  conclusion  is  valueless ;  the  principle  of 
free  inquiry  has  been  violated.  Roman  Catholic  theo- 
logians consistently  enough  teach  that  ''  apologetics  " 
make  no  part  of  theology,  as  usually  conducted  as  re- 
plies to  special  objections  urged  ;  but  that  a  true  apol- 
ogetic must  be  foimded  (1)  on  a  discovery  of  the 
general  principle  from  which  the  attack  proceeds,  and 
(2)  on  the  exhibition,  per  contra^  of  that  general 
ground-thought  of  which  the  single  Christian  truths 
are  developments.  (Hageman,  Die  Aiifgahe  der  Catho- 
lischen  Apologetik.) 

"With  rare  exceptions,  the  theology  of  the  Hanove- 
rian period  is  of  the  most  violently  partisan  character. 
It  seats  itself,  by  its  theory,  in  the  judicial  chair ;  but 
it  is  only  to  comport  itself  there  like  Judge  Jefferies. 
One  of  the  favorite  books  of  the  time  was  Sherlock's 
"  Trial  of  the  Witnesses."  First  published  in  1729,  it 
speedily  went  through  fourteen  editions.  It  concludes 
in  this  way  :  — 

"  Judge :  What  say  you  ?  Are  the  apostles  guilty  of  giving 
false  evidence  in  the  case  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  or  not 
guilty  ? 

"  Foreman  :  Not  guilty. 

"  Judge :  Very  well ;  and  now,  gentlemen,  I  resign  my  commis- 
sion, and  am  your  humble  servant. 

"  The  company  then  rose  up,  and  were  beginning  to  pay  their 
compliments  to  the  judge  and  the  counsel,  but  were  interrupted 


834  TENDENCIES   OF   EELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

by  a  gentleman,  who  went  up  to  the  judge,  and  offered  hun  a  fee. 
'  What  is  this  '?  '  says  the  judge.  '  A  fee,  sir,'  said  the  gentleman. 
'  A  fee  to  a  judge  is  a  bribe,'  said  the  judge.  '  True,  sir,'  said  the 
gentleman  ;  '  but  you  have  resigned  your  commission,  and  will  not 
be  the  first  judge  who  has  come  from  the  bench  to  the  bar  without 
any  dimiiuition  of  honor.  Now,  Lazarus's  case  is  to  come  on  next; 
and  this  fee  is  to  retain  you  on  his  side.'  " 

One  might  say  that  the  apologists  of  that  day  had,  in 
like  manner,  left  the  bench  for  the  bar,  and  taken  a 
brief  for  the  apostles.  They  are  impatient  at  the 
smallest  demur,  and  deny  loudly  that  there  is  any 
weight  in  anything  advanced  by  their  opponents.  In 
the  way  they  override  the  most  serious  difficulties, 
they  show  anything  but  the  temper  which  is  supposed 
to  qualify  for  the  weighing  of  evidence.  The  aston- 
ishing want  of  candor  in  their  reasoning,  their  blind- 
ness to  real  difficulty,  the  ill-concealed  predetermina- 
tion to  find  a  particular  verdict,  the  rise  of  their  style 
in  passion  in  the  same  proportion  as  their  argument 
fails  in  strength,  constitute  a  class  of  writers  more 
calculated  than  any  other  to  damage  their  own  cause 
with  young,  ingenuous  minds,  bred  in  the  school  of 
Locke  to  believe  that  "  to  love  truth  for  truth's  sake 
is  the  principal  part  of  human  perfection  in  this 
world,  and  the  seed-plot  of  all  other  virtues." 
(Locke,  aet.  73,  Letter  to  Collins.')  Spalding  has  de- 
scribed the  moral  shock  his  faith  received  on  hearing 
an  eminent  clergyman  in  confidential  conversation 
with  another,  who  had  cited  some  powerful  argument 
against  revelation,  say,  "  That  's  truly  awkward :  let 
us  consider  a  little  how  we  get  out  of  that ;  wie  wir 
uns  salviren.  (^Selbstbiographie,  p.  128.)  A  truthful 
mind  is  a  much  rarer  possession  than  is  commonly 
supposed  ;  for  "  it  is  as  easy  to  close  the  eyes  of  the 
mind  as  those  of  the  body."  (Butler,  Sermon  x.)  And, 
in  this  rarity,  there  is  a  natural  limit  to  the  injury 


IN  ENGLAND,  1688-1750.  335 

which  uncandid  vmdications  of  revelation  can  cause. 
To  whatever  causes  is  to  be  attributed  the  decline 
of  Deism,  from  1750  onwards,  the  books  polemically 
written  against  it  cannot  reckon  among  them.  When 
Casaubon  first  visited  Paris,  and  was  being  shown  over 
the  Sorbonne,  his  guide  said,  "  This  is  the  hall  in 
which  the  doctors  have  disputed  for  three  hundred 
years."  —  "Ay;  and  what  have  they  settled?"  was 
his  remark. 

Some  exceptions,  doubtless,  there  are  to  the  incon- 
clusiveness  of  this  debate.  Here,  again,  the  eminent 
exception  is  the  "  Analogy."  Butler,  it  is  true,  comes 
forward,  not  as  an  investigator,  but  as  a  pleader.  But, 
when  we  pass  from  his  inferior  brethren  to  this  great 
master  of  the  art,  we  find  ourselves  in  the  hands  of 
one  who  knows  the  laws  of  evidence,  and  carefully 
keeps  his  statements  within  them.  Butler  does  not, 
like  his  fellow-apologists,  disguise  the  fact,  that  the 
evidence  is  no  stronger  than  it  is.  "  If  it  be  a  poor 
thing  "  to  argue  in  this  way,  "  the  epithet  poor  may 
be  applied,  I  fear,  as  properly  to  great  part,  or  tlie 
whole,  of  human  life,  as  it  is  to  the  things  mentioned." 
(^Analogy ^  part  ii.  chap.  8.)  Archbishop  Whately,  de- 
fining the  temper  of  the  rational  theologian,  says, 
"  A  good  man  will,  indeed,  wish  to  find  the  evidence 
of  the  Christian  religion  satisfactory  ;  but  a  wise  man 
will  not,  for  that  reason,  think  it  satisfactory,  but  will 
weigh  the  evidence  the  more  carefully  on  account  of 
the  importance  of  the  question."  (^Essai/s,  second  se- 
ries, p.  24.)  This  character,  Butler's  argument  exem- 
plifies. We  can  feel,  as  we  read,  how  his  judgment 
must  have  been  offended  in  his  contemporaries  by  the 
disproportion  between  the  positiveness  of  their  asser- 
tion and  the  feebleness  of  their  argument.     Nor  should 


TENDENCIES   OF   RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

we  expect  that  Butler  satisfied  them.     They  thought 
him  "  a  little  too  little  vigorous,"  and  "  wished  he 
would  have  spoke  more  earnestly."    (Byroia^s  Journal, 
March,  1737.)     Men  who  believed  that  they  were  in 
possession  of  a  "  demonstration  "  of  Christianity  were 
not  likely  to  be  satisfied  with  one  who  saw  so  strongly 
"  the   doubtfulness  in  which  things  were  involved," 
that  he  could  not  comprehend  "  men's  being  impatient 
out  of  action,  or  vehement  in  it."     (^Unpublished  Re- 
mains, <fcc.)     Warburton,  who  has  a  proof  which  "  is 
very  little   short  of  mathematical  certainty,  and   to 
which  nothing  but  a  mere  physical  possibility  of  the 
contrary  can  be  opposed,"  ("  Divine  Leg.,"  b.  i.  §  1,) 
was  the  man  for  the  age,  which  did  not  care  to  stand 
higgling  with  Butler  over  the  degrees  of  probability. 
What  could  the  world  do  with  a  man  who  "  designed 
the  search  after  truth  as  the  business  of  my  life," 
("  Correspondence  with  Dr.  Clarke,")  and  who  was 
so  little  prepared  to  dogmatize  about  the  future  world, 
that  he  rather  felt  that  "  there  is  no  account  to  be 
given,  in  the  way  of  reason,  of  men's  so  strong  at- 
tachments to  the  present  world"  ?  (^Sermon,  vii.)  But- 
ler's doubtfulness,  however,  it  should  be  remarked,  is 
not  the  unsteadiness  of  the  sceptical,  but  the  wariness 
of  the  judicial  mind,  —  a  mind  determined  for  itself  by 
its  own  instincts,  but  careful  to  confine  its  statements 
to  others  within  the  evidence  produced  in  court.    The 
"  Analogy  "  does  not  depicture  an  inward  struggle  in 
his  own  mind  ;  but,  as  "  he  told  a  friend,  his  way  of 
writing  it  had  been  to  endeavor  to  answer,  as  he  went 
along,  every  possible  objection  that  might  occur  to  any 
one  against  any  position  cf  his  in  his  book."     (Bart- 
lett's  Life  of  Butler,  p.  50.)     He  does  not  doubt  him- 
self; but  he  sees,  what  others  do  not  see,  the  difficulty 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  337 

of  proving  religion  to  others.  There  is  a  saying  of 
Pitt  circulating  to  the  effect  that  the  "  Analogy  "  is  "  a 
dangerous  book:  it  raises  more  doubts  than  it  solves." 
All  that  is  true  in  this  is,  that,  to  a  mind  which  has 
never  nourished  objections  to  revelation,  a  book  of 
evidences  may  be  the  means  of  first  suggesting  them. 
But  in  1736  the  objections  were  everywhere  current, 
and  the  answers  to  them  were  mostly  of  tliat  truly 
"dangerous"  sort,  in  which  assertion  runs  ahead  of 
proof.  The  merit  of  Butler  lies,  not  in  the  "  irrefra- 
gable proof"  which  Southey's  epitaph  attributes  to  his 
construction,  but  in  his  showing  the  nature  of  the 
proof,  and  daring  to  admit  that  it  was  less  than  cer- 
tain ;  to  own  that  "  a  man  may  be  fully  convinced  of 
the  truth  of  a  matter  and  upon  the  strongest  reasons, 
and  yet  not  be  able  to  answer  all  the  difficulties  which 
may  be  raised  upon  it."    (jDurhain  Charg-e,  1751.) 

Another,  perhaps  the  only  other  book  of  this  po- 
lemical tribe  which  can  be  said  to  have  been  com- 
pletely successful  as  an  answer,  is  one  most  unlike  the 
"  Analogy  "  in  all  its  nobler  features.  This  is  Bent- 
ley's  "Remarks  upon  a  late  Discourse  of  Freethinking, 
by  Phileleutherus  Lipsiensis,"  1713.  Coarse,  arro- 
gant, and  abusive,  with  all  Bentley's  worst  faults  of 
style  and  temper,  this  masterly  critique  is  decisive ; 
not,  of  course,  of  the  Deistical  controversy,  on  which 
the  critic  avoids  entering.  The  "  Discourse  of  Free- 
thinking,"  was  a  small  tract  published  in  1713  by 
Anthony  Collins.  Collins  was  a  gentleman  of  inde- 
pendent fortune,  whose  high  personal  character  and 
general  respectability  seemed  to  give  a  weight  to  his 
words  which  assuredly  they  do  not  carry  of  them- 
selves. By  freethinking,  he  means  liberty  of  thought, 
' — the  right  of  bringing  all  received  opinions  whatso- 
15  V 


338  TENDENCIES   OF  RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

ever  to  the  touchstone  of  reason.  Among  the  grounds 
or  authorities  by  which  he  supports  this  natural  right, 
Collins  unluckily  had  recourse  to  history,  and  largely, 
of  course,  to  the  precedent  of  the  Greek  philosophers. 
Collins,  who  had  been  bred  at  Eton  and  King's,  was 
probably  no  worse  a  scholar  than  his  contemporary 
Kingsmen  ;  and  the  range  of  his  reading  was  that  of  a 
man  who  had  made  the  classics  the  companions  of  his 
maturer  years.  But  that  scholarship  which  can  sup- 
ply a  quotation  from  Lucan,  or  flavor  the  style  with 
an  occasional  allusion  to  Tully  or  Seneca,  is  quite 
incompetent  to  apply  Greek  or  Roman  precedent 
properly  to  a  modern  case.  Addison,  the  pride  of 
Oxford,  had  done  no  better.  In  his  "  Essay  on  the 
Evidences  of  Christianity,"  Addison  "  assigns,  as 
grounds  for  his  religious  belief,  stories  as  absurd  as 
that  of  the  Cocklane  ghost,  and  forgeries  as  rank  as 
Ireland's  '  Yortigcrn  ; '  puts  faith  in  the  lie  about  the 
thundering  legion ;  is  convinced  that  Tiberius  moved 
the  Senate  to  admit  Jesus  among  the  gods  ;  and  pro- 
nounces the  letter  of  Abgarus,  King  of  Edessa,  to  be 
a  record  of  great  authority."  (Macaulay :  Essays.') 
But  the  public  was  quite  satisfied  with  Addison's 
citations,  in  which  a  public  which  had  given  the 
victory  to  Boyle  in  the  Phalaris  controversy  *  could 
hardly  suspect  anything  wrong.  Collins  was  not  to 
escape  so  easily.  The  Freethinker  flounders  hope- 
lessly among  the  authorities  he  has  invoked.  Like 
the  necromancer's  apprentice,  he  is  worried  by  the 
fiends  he  has  summoned,  but  cannot  lay  ;  and  Bcntley, 
on  whose  nod  they  wait,  is  there,  like  another  Corne- 
lius Agrippa,  hounding  them  on,  and  enjoying  the 
sport.     Collins's  mistakes,  mistranslations,  misconcep- 

*  See  the  A])peudix. 


m  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  339 

tions,  and  distortions  are  so  monstrous,  that  it  is  diffi- 
cult for  us  now,  forgetful  how  low  classical  learning 
had  sunk,  to  believe  that  they  are  mistakes,  and  not 
wilful  errors.  It  is  rare  sport  to  Bentley,  this  rat- 
hunting  in  an  old  rick  ;  and  he  lays  about  him  in 
high  glee,  braining  an  authority  at  every  blow.  When 
he  left  off  abruptly,  in  the  middle  of  a  "  Third  Part," 
it  was  not  because  he  was  satiated  with  slaughter, 
but  to  substitute  a  new  excitement,  no  less  congenial 
to  his  temper,  —  a  quarrel  with  the  University  about 
his  fees.  A  grace,  voted  1715,  tendering  him  the 
public  thanks  of  the  University,  and  "  praying  liim, 
in  the  name  of  the  University,  to  finish  what  remains 
of  so  useful  a  work,"  could  not  induce  him  to  resume 
his  pen.  The  "  Remarks  of  Phileleutherus  Lipsien- 
sis,"  unfinished  though  they  are,  and  trifling  as  was 
the  book  which  gave  occasion  to  them,  are,  perhaps, 
the  best  of  all  Bentley's  performances.  They  have 
all  the  merits  of  the  Phalaris  dissertation,  with  the 
advantage  of  a  far  nobler  subject.  They  show  how 
Bentley's  exact  appreciation  of  the  value  of  terms 
could,  when  he  chose  to  apply  it  to  that  purpose, 
serve  him  as  a  key  to  the  philosophical  ideas  of  past 
times,  no  less  than  to  those  of  poetical  metaphor.  The 
tone  of  the  pamphlet  is  most  offensive  ;  "  not  only  not 
insipid,  but  exceedingly  bad-tasted."  We  can  only 
say,  the  taste  is  that  of  his  age,  while  the  knowledge 
is  all  his  own.  It  was  fair  to  show  that  his  antagonist 
undertook  "  to  interpret  the  Prophets  and  Solomon, 
without  Hebrew  ;  Plutarch  and  Zosimus  (Colhns  spells 
it  Zozimus),  without  Greek  ;  and  Cicero  and  Lucan, 
without  Latin."  {Remarks,  part  i.  No.  3.)  But  the 
dirt  endeavored  to  be  thrown  on  Collins  will  cleave  to 
the  hand  that  throws  it.     It  may  be  worth  mention, 


340  TENDENCIES   OF  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

that  this  tract  of  Bentley  contains  the  original  of  Sid- 
ney Smith's  celebrated  defence  of  the  "  prizes  "  in  the 
Church.  The  passage  is  a  favorable  specimen  of  the 
moral  level  of  a  polemic  who  was  accusing  his  oppo- 
nent of  holding  "  opinions  the  most  abject  and  base 
that  human  nature  is  capable  of."  (Letter  prefixed 
to  Remarks. ~) 

"  He  can  never  conceive  or  wish  a  priesthood  either  quieter  for 
him,  or  cheaper,  than  that  of  the  present  Church  of  England.  Of 
your  quietness,  himself  is  a  convincing  proof,  who  has  writ  this  out- 
rageous book,  and  has  met  with  no  punishment  nor  prosecution ; 
and  for  the  cheapness,  that  appeared  lately  in  one  of  your  parlia- 
ments, when  the  accounts  exhibited  showed  that  six  thousand  of 
your  clergy  —  the  greater  part  of  your  whole  number  —  had,  at  a 
middle  rate  one  with  another,  not  fifty  pounds  a  year ;  a  poor 
emolument  for  so  long,  so  laborious,  so  expensive  an  education  as 
must  qualify  them  for  holy  ordei's.  While  I  resided  at  Oxford,  and 
saw  such  a  conflux  of  youth  to  their  annual  admissions,  I  have 
often  studied  and  admired  why  their  parents  would,  under  such 
mean  encouragements,  design  their  sons  for  the  church  ;  and  those 
the  most  towardly  and  capable  and  select  geniuses  among  their 
children,  who  must  needs  have  emerged  in  a  secular  life.  I  con- 
gratulated, indeed,  the  felicity  of  your  establishment,  which  at- 
tracted the  choice  youth  of  your  nation  for  such  very  low  pay :  but 
my  wonder  was  at  the  parents,  who  generally  have  interest,  main- 
tenance, and  wealth,  the  first  thing  in  their  view  ;  till  at  last  one 
of  your  state-lotteries  ceased  my  astonishment.  For  as,  in  that,  a 
few  glittering  prizes,  one  thousand,  five  thousand,  ten  thousand 
pounds,  among  an  infinity  of  blanks,  di-ew  troops  of  adventurers, 
who,  if  the  whole  fund  had  been  equally  ticketed,  would  never  have 
come  in  ;  so  a  few  shining  dignities  in  your  church,  prebends,  dean- 
eries, bishoprics,  are  the  pious  fraud  that  induces  and  decoys  the 
parents  to  risk  their  child's  fortune  in  it.  Every  one  hopes  his  own 
will  get  some  prize  in  the  church,  and  never  reflects  on  the  thou- 
sands of  blanks  in  poor  country  livings.  And,  if  a  foreigner  may 
tell  you  his  mind  from  what  he  sees  at  home,  't  is  this  part  of  your 
establishment  that  makes  your  clergy  excel  ours  [i.  e.  in  Germany, 
from  Avhich  '  Phileleutherus  Lipsiensis '  is  supposed  to  write].  Do 
but  once  level  all  your  preferments,  and  you  '11  soon  be  as  level  in 
your  learning  ;  for,  instead  of  the  flower  of  the  English  youth, 
you  '11  have  only  the  refuse  sent  to  your  academies,  and  those,  too, 
cramped  and  crippled  in  their  studies,  for  want  of  aim  and  emula- 
tion. So  that,  if  your  Freethinkers  had  any  politics,  instead  of 
suppressing  your  whole  order,  they  should  make  you  all  alike  ;  or, 
if  that  cannot  be  done,  make  your  preferments  a  very  lottery  in 
the  whole  similitude.  Let  your  church  dignities  be  pure  chance 
prizes,  without  regard  to  abilities  or  morals  or  letters."  —  Remarks , 
&c.,  part  ii.  §  40. 


IN  ENGLAND,   16S8-1750.  841 

It  lias  been  mentioned  that  Bentley  does  not  attempt 
to  reply  to  the  argument  of  the  "  Discourse  on  Free- 
thinking."  His  tactic  is  to  ignore  it,  and  to  assume 
that  it  is  only  meant  as  a  covert  attack  on  Christianity  ; 
that  Collins  is  an  Athiest  fighting  under  the  disguise 
of  a  Deist.  Some  excuse,  perhaps,  may  be  made  for  a 
man  nourished  on  pedagogic  Latin,  and  accustomed  to 
launch  furious  sarcasm  at  any  opponent  who  betrayed 
a  brutal  ignorance  of  the  difference  between  ac  and 
et.  But  Collins  was  not  a  sharper,  and  would  have 
disdained  practices  to  which  Bentley  stooped  for  the 
sake  of  a  professorship.  When  Bentley,  in  the  pride 
of  academic  dignity,  could  thus  browbeat  a  person  of 
CoUins's  consideration,  it  was  not  to  be  expected  that 
the  inferior  fry  of  Deistical  writers  —  Toland,  a  writer 
for  the  press  ;  Tindal,  a  fellow  of  a  College  ;  or  Chubb, 
a  journeyman  glover  —  met  with  fairer  treatment  from 
their  opponents.  The  only  exception  to  this  is  the 
case  of  Shaftesbury,  to  whom,  as  well  after  his  death 
as  in  his  lifetime,  his  privileges  as  a  peer  seem  to  have 
secured  immunity  from  hangman's  usage.  He  is 
simply  "  a  late  noble  author."  Nor  was  this  respect 
inspired  by  the  earl's  profession  of  Christianity.  He 
does,  indeed,  make  this  profession  with  the  utmost 
unreserve.  He  asserts  his  "  steady  orthodoxy,"  and 
''  entire  submission  to  the  truly  Christian  and  Catholic 
doctrines  of  our  holy  Church,  as  by  law  established ;  " 
and  that  he  holds  "  the  mysteries  of  our  religion,  even 
in  the  minutest  particulars."  (  Character  (sticks,  vol.  iii. 
p.  315.)  But  this  outward  profession  would  only  have 
brought  down  upon  any  other  writer  an  aggravated 
charge  of  cowardly  malice  and  concealment  of  Athe- 
ism. If  Shaftesbury  was  spared  on  account  of  his 
rank,  the  orthodox  writers  were  not  altogether  wrong 


342  TENDENCIES   OF   RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

ill  fastening  upon  this  disingcnuoiisness  as  a  moral 
characteristic  of  their  antagonists.  The  excuse  for 
this  want  of  manliness  in  men  who  please  themselves 
with  insinuating  unpopular  opinions  which  they  dare 
not  advocate  openly,  is  that  it  is  an  injustice  perpe- 
trated by  those  who  have  public  feeling  on  their  side. 
"  They  make,"  says  Mr.  Tayler,  "  the  honest  expres- 
sion of  opinion  penal,  and  then  condemn  men  for 
disingenuousness.  They  invite  to  free  discussion 
but  determine  beforehand  that  only  one  conclusion 
can  be  sound  and  moral.  They  fill  the  arena  of 
public  debate  with  every  instrument  of  torture  and 
annoyance  for  the  feeling  heart,  the  sensitive  imagina- 
tion, and  the  scrupulous  intellect,  and  then  are  angry 
that  men  do  not  rush  headlong  into  the  martyrdom 
that  has  been  prepared  for  them."  (^Religious  Life 
of  England,  p.  282.) 

In  days  when  the  pillory  was  the  punishment  for 
common  libel,  it  cannot  be  thought  much  that  heresy 
and  infidelity  should  be  punished  by  public  opprobri- 
um ;  and  public  abhorrence  was  the  most  that  a  writer 
against  revelation  had  now  to  fear.  Mandeville's  "  Fa- 
ble of  the  Bees,"  indeed,  w^as  presented  as  a  nuisance 
by  the  grand  jury  of  Middlesex,  in  1T23 ;  as  were  Bo- 
lingbroke's  collected  "  Works,"  in  1752,  and  Toland's 
"  Christianity  not  Mysterious,"  in  1699.  We  find,  too, 
that  Toland  had  to  fly  from  Dublin,  and  Collins  to  go 
out  of  the  way  to  Holland,  for  fear  of  further  conse- 
quences. But  nothing  ever  came  of  these  present- 
ments. The  only  prosecution  for  religious  libel  was 
that  of  Woolston,  2  George  II.,  in  which  the  defend- 
ant, who  was  not  of  sound  mind,  provoked,  and  even 
compelled,  the  law  officers  of  the  crown  to  proceed 
against  him,  though  they  were  very  reluctant  to  do  so. 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  343 

When  tlnis  compelled  to  declare  the  law  on  this  occa- 
sion, the  Lord  Chief- Justice  (Raymond)  "  would  not 
allow  it  to  be  doubted,  that  to  write  against  Chris- 
tianity in  general  was  punishable  at  common  law." 
Yet  both  then  and  since  judges  and  prosecutors  have 
shown  themselves  shy  of  insisting  upon  the  naked 
offence  of  "  impugning  the  truth  of  Christianity." 
That  it  is  an  offence  at  common  law,  independent  of 
9  and  10  William  III.,  no  lawyer  will  deny.  But  an 
instinctive  sense  of  the  incompatibility  of  this  legal 
doctrine  with  the  fundamental  tenet  af  Protestant 
Eationalism  has  always  served  to  keep  it  in  the  back- 
ground. "  The  judges  seem  to  have  played  fast  and 
loose  in  this  matter,  in  such  sort  as  might  enable  the 
future  judge  to  quote  the  tolerant  or  the  intolerant 
side  of  their  doctrine,  as  might  prove  convenient ; 
and,  while  seemingly  disavowing  all  interference  with 
fair  discussion,  they  still  kept  a  wary  hold  of  the  pre- 
cedents of  Hale  and  Raymond,  and  of  the  great  arca- 
num of  '  part  and  parcel ; '  '  semianimesque  micant 
digiti,  ferrumque  retractant.'  "  (^Considerations  on  the 
Law  of  Libel.     By  John  Search,  1833.) 

Whatever  excuse  the  Deistical  writers  might  have 
for  their  insidious  manner  of  writhig,  it  is  more  to  the 
present  purpose  to  observe  that  we  may  draw  from  it 
the  conclusion,  that  public  opinion  was  throughout 
on  the  side  of  the  defenders  of  Christianity.  It  might 
seem  almost  superfluous  to  say  this,  were  it  not  that 
complaints  meet  us  on  every  side,  which  seem  to  imply 
the  very  contrary ;  that,  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Gregory, 
"  the  doctrine  of  our  Church  is  exploded,  and  our  holy 
religion  become  only  a  name  which  is  everywhere  spo- 
ken against."  (JPref.  to  Beveridgeh  Private  Thoiig-hts, 
1709.)     Thirty  years  later,  Butler  writes  that  "  it  is 


344  TENDENCIES   OF   RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

come  to  be  taken  for  granted,  that  Christianity  is  not 
so  much  as  a  subject  of  inquiry  ;  but  that  it  is  now,  at 
length,  discovered  to  be  fictitious.  Accordingly,  they 
treat  it  as  if  in  the  present  age  this  were  an  agreed 
point  among  all  people  of  discernment,  and  nothing 
remained  but  to  set  it  up  as  a  principal  subject  of 
mirth  and  ridicule,  as  it  were  by  way  of  reprisals  for 
its  having  so  long  interrupted  the  pleasures  of  the 
world."  (^Advertisement  to  Analogy,  1736.)  However 
a  loose  kind  of  Deism  might  be  the  tone  of  fashionable 
circles,  it  is  clear  that  distinct  disbelief  of  Christianity 
was  by  no  means  the  general  state  of  the  public  mind. 
The  leaders  of  the  Low-Church  and  Whig  party  were 
quite  aware  of  this.  Notwithstanding  the  universal 
complaints  of  the  High-Church  party  of  the  prevalence 
of  infidelity,  it  is  obvious  that  this  mode  of  thinking 
was  confined  to  a  very  small  section  of  society.  The 
"  Independent  Whig  "  (May  4, 1720),  in  the  middle  of 
its  blustering  and  endeavors  to  terrify  the  clergy  with 
their  unpopularity,  is  obliged  to  admit  that  "  the  High- 
Church  Popish  clergy  will  laugh  in  their  sleeves  at  this 
advice,  and  think  there  is  folly  enough  yet  left  among 
the  laity  to  support  their  authority  ;  and  will  laugh 
themselves,  and  rejoice  over  the  ignorance  of  the  uni- 
versities, the  stupidity  of  the  drunken  squires,  the 
panic  of  the  tender  sex,  and  the  never-to-be-shaken 
constancy  of  the  multitude."  A  still  better  evidence 
is  the  confidence  and  success  with  which  the  writers 
on  the  side  of  revelation  appealed  to  the  popular 
passions,  and  cowed  their  Deistical  opponents  into  the 
use  of  that  indirect  and  disingenuous  procedure  with 
which  they  then  taunted  them.  The  clerical  sphere 
was  much  more  a  sphere  by  itself  than  it  has  since 
become.     Notwithstanding  the  large  toleration  really 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  345 

practised,  strict  professional  etiquette  was  still  observed 
in  the  Church  and  the  universities.  The  horizontal 
hat,  the  starched  band,  and  the  cassock,  were  still 
worn  in  public  ;  and  certain  proprieties  of  outward 
manner  were  expected  from  "  the  cloth."  The  viola- 
tion of  these  proprieties  was  punished  by  the  forfeiture 
of  the  offenders'  prospects  of  preferment ;  a  point  on 
which  the  most  extreme  sensitiveness  existed.  In  the 
Balguj  and  Waterland  set,  an  officious  spirit  of  dela- 
tion seems  to  have  flourished.  The  general  habit  of 
publicly  canvassing  religious  topics  was  very  favorable 
to  this  espionage  ;  as,  at  the  Reformation,  the  Catho- 
lics gathered  their  best  calumnies  against  Luther  from 
his  unreserved  '^  table-talk." 

It  was  not  difficult  to  draw  the  unhappy  Middleton 
into  "unguarded  expressions  "  (Van  Mildert,  " Life  of 
Waterland,"  p.  162)  ;  and  something  which  had  fallen 
from  Rundle  in  his  younger  days  was  used  against  him 
so  successfully,  that  even  the  Talbot  interest  was  able 
to  procure  him  only  an  Irish  bishopric.  Lord  Ches- 
terfield, seeing  what  advantage  the  High-Church  party 
derived  from  this  tactic,  endeavored  to  turn  it  against 
them.  He  gives  a  circumstantial  account  of  a  con- 
versation with  Pope,  which  would  tend  to  prove  that 
Atterbury  was  nearly  all  his  life  a  sceptic.  The  thing 
was  not  true,  as  Mr.  Carruthers  has  shown  ("  Life  of 
Pope,"  2d  ed.,  p.  213) ;  and,  true  or  false,  the  weapon 
in  Chesterfield's  hands  was  pointless. 

Though  the  general  feeling  of  the  country  was  suf- 
ficiently decided  to  oblige  all  who  wished  to  write 
against  Christianity  to  do  so  under  a  mask,  this  was 
not  the  case  with  attacks  upon  the  clergy.  Since  the 
days  of  the  Lollards,  there  had  never  been  a  time 
when  the  established  ministers  of  religion  were  held 
15*' 


346  TENDENCIES   OF  RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

in  SO  much  contempt  as  in  the  Hanoverian  period,  or 
wlien  satire  upon  Churchmen  was  so  congenial  to  gen- 
eral feeling.  This,  too,  was  the  more  extraordinary, 
as  there  was  no  feeling  against  the  Church  Establish- 
ment, nor  was  Nonconformity  as  a  theory  ever  less  in 
favor.  The  contempt  was  for  the  persons,  manners, 
and  character  of  the  ecclesiastics.  When  Macaulay 
brought  out  his  portrait  of  the  clergyman  of  the  Revo- 
lution period,  his  critics  endeavored  to  show  that  that 
portrait  was  not  true  to  life.  They  seem  to  have 
brought  ovit  the  fact,  that  it  was  pretty  fairly  true  to 
literature.  The  difficult  point  is  to  estimate  how  far 
the  satirical  and  popular  literature  of  any  age  may  be 
taken  as  representative  of  life.  Satire  to  be  popular 
must  exaggerate  ;  but  it  must  be  exaggeration  of 
known  and  recognized  facts.  Mr.  Churchill  Babing- 
ton  ("  Character  of  the  Clergy,  &c.,  considered," 
p.  48)  sets  aside  two  of  Macaulay's  authorities,  Old- 
ham and  T.  Wood,  because  Oldham  was  an  Atheist, 
and  Wood  a  Deist.  Admitting  that  an  Atheist  and  a 
Deist  can  be  under  no  obligation  to  truth,  yet  a  satir- 
ist who  intends  to  be  read  is  under  the  most  inevita- 
ble engagement  to  the  probable.  Satire  does  not 
create  the  sentiment  to  which  it  appeals.  A  portrait 
of  the  country  parson  temp.  George  the  Second,  which 
should  be  drawn  verbatim  from  the  pamphlets  of  the 
day,  would  be  no  more  historical  than  is  that  portrait 
of  the  begging  friar  of  the  sixteenth  century,  which 
our  historians  repeat  after  Erasmus  and  the  "  Epis- 
tolae  Obscurorum  Virorum."  History  may  be  ex- 
tracted from  them  ;  but  these  caricatures  are  not 
themselves  history. 

One  inference  which  we  may  safely  draw  is  that 
public  feeling  encouraged  such  representations.     It 


IN  ENGLAND,  1688-1750.  347 

is  a  symptom  of  the  religious  temper  of  the  times, 
that  the  same  public  which  compelled  the  Deist  to 
wear  the  mask  of  "  solemn  sneer "  in  his  assaults 
upon  Christian  doctrine,  required  no  such  disguise  or 
reserve  when  the  ministers  of  the  Church  were  spoken 
of.  Nor  does  the  evidence  consist  in  a  few  stray  ex- 
tracts from  here  and  there  a  Deist  or  a  cynic :  it  is 
the  tone  of  all  the  popular  writers  of  that  time.  The 
unedifying  lives  of  the  clergy  are  a  standard  theme 
of  sarcasm,  and  continue  to  be  so  till  a  late  period  in 
the  century,  when  a  gradual  change  may  be  observed 
in  the  language  of  literature.  This  antipathy  to  the 
clergy,  visible  in  the  Hanoverian  period,  admits  of 
comparison  with  that  vein  which  colors  the  popular 
songs  of  the  Wickliffite  era.  In  the  fifteentli  century 
the  satire  is  not  indiscriminate.  It  is  against  the 
monks  and  friars,  the  bishops  and  cardinals,  as  distinct 
from  the  "  poor  persoun  of  a  toun."  Its  point  against 
the  organized  hypocrisy  of  the  Papal  Churchmen 
is  given  it  by  the  picture  of  the  ideal  minister  of 
"  Christe's  Gospel,"  which  always  accompanies  the 
burlesque.  In  the  eighteenth  century  the  license  of 
satire  goes  much  beyond  this.  In  the  early  part 
of  the  century  we  find  clerical  satire  observing  to 
some  extent  a  similar  discrimination.  The  Tory  par- 
son is  libelled  always  with  an  ostentatious  reserve  of 
commendation  for  the  more  enlightened  and  liberal 
Hanoverian,  the  stanch  maintainor  of  the  Protestant 
succession.  This  is  the  tone  of  the  "  Independent 
Whig,"  one  of  the  numerous  weekly  sheets  called  into 
being  in  imitation  of  the  "  Tatler."  It  was  started 
in  1720 ;  taking  for  its  exclusive  theme  the  clergy, 
whom  it  was  its  avowed  object  to  abuse.  A  paper 
came  out  every  Wednesday.     It  was  not  a  newspaper, 


348  TENDENCIES   OF   RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

and  does  not  deal  in  libel  or  personalities  ;  hardly  ever 
mentioning  a  name,  very  rarely  quoting  a  fact,  but 
dilating  in  general  terms  upon  clerical  ignorance  and 
bigotry.  This  dull  and  worthless  trash  not  only  had 
a  considerable  circulation  at  the  time,  but  was  re- 
printed, and  passed  through  several  editions  in  a 
collected  form.  The  bishops  talked  of  prohibiting  it, 
but,  on  second  thoughts,  acted  more  wisely  in  taking 
no  notice  of  it.  The  only  part  of  the  kingdom  into 
which  it  could  not  find  entrance  was  the  Isle  of  Man, 
where  the  saintly  Wilson  combined  with  apostolic 
virtues  much  of  the  old  episcopal  claims  over  the 
consciences  of  his  flock.  The  "  Independent  Whig," 
though  manifestly  written  by  a  man  of  no  religion, 
yet  finds  it  necessary  to  keep  up  the  appearance  of 
encouraging  the  "  better  sort  "  of  clergy,  and  affecting 
to  despise  only  the  political  priests,  the  meddling 
chaplain,  the  preferment-hunter,  the  toper,  who  is 
notable  at  bowls,  and  dexterous  at  whisk. 

As  we  advance  towards  the  middle  of  the  century, 
and  the  French  influence  begins  to  mingle  with  pure 
English  Deism,  the  spirit  of  contempt  spreads  till  it 
involves  all  priests  of  all  religions.  The  language 
now  is,  "  The  established  clergy  in  every  country  are 
generally  the  greatest  enemies  to  all  kinds  of  reforma- 
tion, as  they  are  generally  the  most  narrow-minded 
and  most  worthless  set  of  men  in  every  country. 
Fortunately  for  the  present  times,  the  wings  of  cleri- 
cal power  and  influence  are  pretty  close  trimmed ;  so 
that  I  do  not  think  their  opposition  to  the  proposed 
reformations  could  be  of  any  great  consequence,  more 
of  the  people  being  inclined  to  despise  them  than  to 
follow  them  blindly."  (Burgh,  Political  Disquisitions, 
1774.)     It  was   no   longer  for  their  vices   that  the 


IN  ENGLAND,   1638-1750.  349 

clergy  were  reviled  ;  for  the  philosopher  now  had 
come  to  understand  that  "  their  virtues  were  more 
dangerous  "  to  society.  Strictness  of  life  did  but  in- 
crease the  dislike  with  which  the  clergyman  was 
regarded  :  his  morality  was  but  double-dyed  hypoc- 
risy ;  religious  language  from  his  mouth  was  method- 
istical  cant.  Nor  did  the  orthodox  attempt  to  struggle 
with  this  sentiment :  they  yielded  to  it,  and  adopted 
for  their  maxim  of  conduct,  "  Surtout  point  de  zele." 
Their  sermons  and  pamphlets  were  now  directed 
against  "  Enthusiasm,"  which  became  the  bugbear  of 
that  time.  Every  clergyman,  who  wished  to  retain 
any  influence  over  the  minds  of  his  parishioners,  was 
anxious  to  vindicate  himself  from  all  suspicion  of  en- 
thusiasm. When  he  had  set  himself  right  in  this 
respect,  he  endeavored  to  do  the  same  good  office  for 
the  apostles.  But,  if  he  were  not  an  "  enthusiast," 
he  was  an  "  impostor ; "  for  every  clergyman  of  the 
Church  had  against  him  an  antecedent  presumption 
as  a  "  priest."  It  was  now  well  understood  by  all 
enlightened  men,  that  the  whole  sacerdotal  brood 
were  but  a  set  of  impostors,  who  lived  by  deceiving 
the  people,  and  who  had  invented  religion  for  their 
own  benefit.  Natural  religion  needed  no  "  priests  " 
to  uphold  it :  it  was  obvious  to  every  understanding, 
and  could  maintain  itself  in  the  world  without  any 
confraternity  sworn  to  the  secret. 

Again  came  a  change.  As  the  Methodist  move- 
ment gradually  leavened  the  mass  beneath,  zeal  came 
again  into  credit.  The  old  Wickliffiite,  or  Puritan  dis- 
tinction is  revived  between  the  "  gospel-preachers  " 
and  the  "  dumb  dogs."  The  antipathy  to  priests  was 
no  longer  promiscuous.  Popular  indignation  was  re- 
served for  the  fox-hunter  and  the  pluralist ;  the  Hophni 


o50  TENDENCIES   OF   RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

and  Phinelias  generation  ;  the  men  who  are  described 
as  "  careless  of  dispensing  the  bread  of  life  to  their 
flocks,  preaching  a  carnal  and  soul-benumbing  moral- 
ity, and  trafficking  in  the  souls  of  men  by  receiving 
money  for  discharging  the  pastoral  office  in  parishes 
where  they  did  not  so  much  as  look  on  the  faces  of 
the  people  more  than  once  a  year."  In  the  well- 
known  satire  of  Cowper,  it  is  no  longer  irreligious 
mocking  at  sacred  things  under  pretence  of  a  virtuous 
indignation  :  it  becomes  again  what  it  was  before  the 
Reformation,  —  an  earnest  feeling,  a  religious  senti- 
ment, the  moral  sense  of  man  ;  Huss  or  Savonarola 
appealing  to  the  written  morality  of  the  gospel  against 
the  practical  immorality  consecrated  by  the  Church. 

Something,  too,  of  the  old  anti-hierarchical  feeling 
accompanies  this  revival  of  the  influence  of  the  in- 
ferior clergy  ;  a  faint  reflection  of  the  bitter  hatred 
which  the  Lollard  had  borne  to  pope  and  cardinal,  or 
the  Puritan  to  "  Prelacy."  The  utility  of  the  episco- 
pal and  capitular  dignities  continued  to  be  questioned 
long  after  the  evangelical  parish  pastor  had  re-estab- 
lished himself  in  the  affections  of  his  flock,  and  1832 
saw  the  cathedrals  go  down  amid  the  general  appro- 
bation of  all  classes.  In  the  earlier  half  of  the  cen- 
tury, the  reverse  was  the  case.  The  boorish  country 
parson  was  the  man  whose  order  was  despised  then, 
and  his  utility  questioned.  The  Freethinkers  them- 
selves could  not  deny  that  the  bench  and  the  stalls 
were  graced  by  some  whose  wit,  reputation,  and 
learning  would  have  made  them  considerable  in  any 
profession.  The  higher  clergy  had  with  them  the 
town  and  the  court :  the  country  clergy  sided  with 
the  squires.  The  mass  of  the  clergy  were  not  in  sym- 
pathy, either  politically  or  hitellectually,  with  their 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  351 

ecclesiastical  superiors.  The  Tory  fox-hunter,  in  the 
"  Freeholder  "  (No.  22),  thinks  "the  neighboring  shire 
very  happy  for  having  scarce  a  Presbyterian  in  it,  ex- 
cept the  bishop  ;  "  while  Hickes  "  thanks  God  that 
the  main  body  of  the  clergy  are  in  their  hearts,  Jaco- 
bites." The  bishops  of  George  the  Second  deserved 
the  respect  they  met  with.  At  no  period  in  the  his- 
tory of  our  Church  has  the  ecclesiastical  patronage  of 
the  crown  been  better  directed  than  while  it  was 
secretly  dispensed  by  Queen  Caroline.  For  a  brief 
period,  liberality  and  cultivation  of  mind  were  pass- 
ports to  promotion  in  the  Church.  Nor  were  politics 
a  hinderance  :  the  queen  earnestly  pressed  an  English 
see  upon  Bishop  Wilson.  The  corruption  which  be- 
gan with  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  (1746)  gradually 
deepened  in  the  subsequent  reign,  as  political  ortho- 
doxy and  connection  were  made  the  tests,  and  the 
borough-holders  divided  the  dignities  of  the  Church 
among  their  adherents. 

Of  an  age  so  solid  and  practical,  it  was  not  to  be 
expected  that  its  theology  and  metaphysics  would 
mount  into  the  more  remote  spheres  of  abstraction. 
Their  line  of  argument  was,  as  has  been  seen,  regu- 
lated by  the  necessity  they  laid  themselves  under  of 
appealing  to  sound  sense  and  common  reason.  But 
not  only  was  their  treatment  of  their  topic  popu- 
lar :  the  motive  of  their  writings  was  an  immediate 
practical  necessity.  Bishops  and  deans  might  be 
made  for  merit ;  but  it  was  not  mere  literary  merit, 
classical  scholarship,  or  university  distinction.  The 
Deistical  controversy  did  not  originate,  like  some 
other  controversies  which  have  made  much  noise  in 
their  time,  in  speculative  fancy,  in  the  leisure  of  the 
cloister  or  the  college :   it  had  a  living  practical  in- 


352  TENDENCIES   OF   RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

terest  in  its  complication  with  the  questions  of  the 
day.  The  endeavor  of  the  morahsts  and  divines  of 
the  period  to  rationalize  religion  was  in  fact  an  effort 
to  preserve  the  practical  principles  of  moral  and  relig- 
ious conduct  for  society.  It  was  not  an  academical 
disputation,  or  a  contest  of  wits  for  superiority,  but  a 
life-and-death  struggle  of  religious  and  moral  feeling 
to  maintain  itself.  What  they  felt  they  had  to  con- 
tend against  was  moral  depravity,  and  not  theological 
error :  they  wrote  less  in  the  interest  of  truth  than 
in  that  of  virtue.  A  general  relaxation  of  manners, 
in  all  classes  of  society,  is  universally  affirmed  to  be 
characteristic  of  that  time  ;  and  theology  and  philos- 
ophy applied  themselves  to  combat  this.  A  striking 
instance  of  this  is  Bishop  Berkeley,  —  the  only  meta- 
physical writer  of  the  time,  besides  Locke,  who  has 
maintained  a  very  high  name  in  philosophical  history. 
He  forms  a  solitary  —  it  might  seem  a  singular  —  ex- 
ception to  what  has  been  said  of  the  prosaic  and  un- 
metaphysical  character  of  this  moralizing  age.  The  two 
peculiar  metaphysical  notions  which  are  connected  with 
Berkeley's  name,  and  whicK  though  he  did  not  origi- 
nate, he  propounded  with  a  novelty  and  distinctness 
equal  to  originality,  have  always  ranked  as  being  on 
the  extreme  verge  of  rational  speculation,  if  not  actu- 
ally within  the  region  of  unfruitful  paradox  and  meta- 
physical romance.  These  two  memorable  speculations, 
as  propounded  by  Berkeley  in  the  "  Alciphron,"  come 
before  us,  not  as  a  Utopian  dream  or  an  ingenious 
play  of  reason,  but  interwoven  in  a  polemic  against 
tlie  prevailing  unbelief.  They  are  made  to  bend  to  a 
most  practical  purpose,  and  are  Berkeley's  contribu- 
tion to  the  Dcistical  controversy.  The  character  of 
the  man,  too,  was  more  in  harmony  with  the  plain 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  353 

utilitarian  spirit  of  his  time  than  with  his  own  refining 
intellect.  He  was  not  a  closet-thinker,  like  his  master 
Malebranche,  but  a  man  of  the  world  and  of  society, 
inquisitive  and  well  informed  in  many  branches  of 
practical  science.  Practical  schemes,  social  and  phil- 
anthropic, occupied  his  mind  more  than  abstract 
thinking.  In  pushing  the  received  metaphysical  creed 
to  its  paradoxical  consequences,  as  much  as  in  pre- 
scribing "  tar-water,"  he  was  thinking  only  of  an  im- 
mediate "  benefit  to  mankind."  He  seems  to  have 
thought  nothing  of  his  argument  until  he  had  brought 
it  to  bear  on  the  practical  question  of  the  day. 

Were  the  "  corruption  of  manners  "  merely  the  com- 
plaint of  one  party,  or  set  of  writers,  a  cry  of  factious 
Puritanism,  or  of  men  who  were  at  war  with  society, 
like  the  Nonjuring  clergy,  or  of  a  few  isolated  indi- 
viduals of  superior  piety,  like  William  Law,  it  would 
be  easily  explicable.  The  "  world,"  at  all  times, 
and  in  all  coimtries,  can  be  described  with  truth 
as  "  lying  in  wickedness ;  "  and  the  rebuke  of  the 
preacher  of  righteousness  is  equally  needed  in  every 
age.  There  cannot  be  a  darker  picture  than  that 
drawn,  by  the  Fathers  of  the  third  century  of  the 
morals  of  the  Christians  in  their  time.  (See  passages 
in  Jewel's  "  Apology.")  The  rigorous  moralist,  Hea- 
then or  Christian,  can  always  point  in  sharp  contrast 
the  vices  and  the  belief  of  mankind.  But,  after 
making  every  allowance  for  the  exaggeration  of  re- 
ligious rhetoric  and  the  querulousness  of  defeated 
parties  there  seems  to  remain  some  real  evidence  for 
ascribing  to  that  age  a  more  than  usual  moral  license, 
and  contempt  of  external  restraints.  It  is  the  con- 
current testimony  of  men  of  all  parties ;  it  is  the 
general  strain  of  the  most  sensible  and  worldly  di- 

w 


354  TENDENCIES   OF   RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

vdnes  ;  prosperous  men,  wlio  lived  with  this  very  world 
they  Cv3iisurc,  —  men  whose  code  of  morals  was  not 
large,  nor  their  standard  exacting.  To  attempt  the 
inquiry,  what  specific  evils  were  meant  by  the  general 
expressions,  "  decay  of  religion  "  and  "  corruption  of 
manners,"  the  stereotype  phrases  of  the  time,  is  not 
within  the  limits  of  this  paper.  No  historian,  as  far 
as  I  am  aware,  has  attempted  this  examination :  all 
have  been  content  to  render,  without  valuation,  the 
cliarges  as  they  find  them.  I  shall  content  myself 
with  producing  here  one  statement  of  contemporary 
opinion  on  this  point ;  for  which  purpose  I  select  a 
layman,  David  Hartley  (^Observations  on  Man^  vol.  ii. 
p.  441)  :  _ 

"  There  are  six  things  which  seem  more  especially  to  threaten 
ruin  and  dissolution  to  the  present  States  of  Christendom. 

"  1st,  The  great  growth  of  atheism  and  infidelity,  particularly 
amongst  the  governing  parts  of  these  States. 

"  2d,  The  open  and  abandoned  lewdness  to  which  great  numbers 
of  both  sexes,  especially  in  the  high  ranks  of  life,  have  given  them- 
selves up. 

"  3d,  The  sordid  and  avowed  self-interest  which  is  almost  the 
sole  motive  of  action  in  those  who  are  concerned  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  public  aliairs . 

"  4th,  The  licentiousness  and  contempt  of  every  kind  of  au- 
thority, divine  or  human,  which  is  so  notorious  in  inferiors  of  all 
ranks. 

"  5th,  The  great  worldly-mindedness  of  the  clergy,  and  their 
gross  neglect  in  the  discharge  of  their  proper  functions. 

"  6th,  The  carelessness  and  infatuation  of  parents  and  magis- 
trates, with  respect  to  the  education  of  youth,  and  the  consequent 
early  corruption  of  the  rising  generation. 

"  All  these  things  have  evident  mutual  connections  and  influ- 
ences ;  and  as  they  all  seem  likely  to  increase  from  time  to  time, 
so  it  can  scarce  be  doubted  by  a  considerate  man,  whether  he  be  a 
religious  one  or  no,  but  that  they  will,  sooner  or  later,  bring  on 
a  total  dissolution  of  all  the  forms  of  government  that  subsist  at 
present  in  the  Christian  countries  of  Europe." 

Though  there  is  this  entire  unanimity  as  to  the  fact 
of  the  prevailing  corruption,  there  is  the  greatest 
diversity  of  opinion  as  to  its  cause.     Each   party  is 


IN  ENGLAND,   1683-1750.  355 

found  in  turn  attributing  it  to  the  neglect  or  disbelief 
of  the  abstract  propositions  in  which  its  own  partic- 
ular creed  is  expressed.  The  Nonjurors  and  High- 
Churchmen  attribute  it  to  the  Toleration  Act  and  the 
latitudinarianism  allowed  in  high  places.  One  of  the 
very  popular  pamphlets  of  the  year  1721,  was  a  fast- 
sermon  preached  before  the  Lord  Mayor  by  Edmund 
Massey,  in  which  he  enumerates  the  evils  of  the  time, 
and  affirms  that  they  "  are  justly  chargeable  upon  the 
corrupt  explication  of  those  words  of  our  Saviour, 
'  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world  ; '  "  i.  e.  upon  Hoad- 
ly's  celebrated  sermon.  The  latitudinarian  clergy 
divide  the  blame  between  the  Freethinkers  and  the 
Nonjurors.  The  Freethinkers  point  to  the  hypocrisy 
of  the  clergy,  who,  they  say,  lost  all  credit  with  the 
people  by  having  preached  "  passive  obedience  "  up 
to  1688,  and  then  suddenly  finding  out  that  it  was  not 
a  scriptural  truth.  The  Nonconformists  lay  it  to  the 
enforcement  of  conformity,  and  unscriptural  terms  of 
communion ;  while  the  Catholics  rejoice  to  see  in  it 
the  Protestant  Reformation  at  last  bearing  its  natural 
fruit.  Warburton  characteristically  attributes  it  to 
the  bestowal  of  "  preferment "  by  the  Walpole  admin- 
istration. (Dedication  to  Lord  Mansfield,  Works,  ii. 
268.)  The  power  of  preferment  was  not  under-esti- 
mated then.  George  II.  maintained  to  the  last,  that 
the  growth  of  Methodism  was  entirely  owing  to  min- 
isters not  having  listened  to  his  advice,  and  "  made 
Whitefield  a  bishop."  Lastly,  that  every  one  may 
have  his  say,  a  professor  of  moral  philosophy  in  our 
day  is  found  attributing  the  same  facts  to  the  preva- 
lence of  "  that  low  view  of  morality  which  rests  its 
rules  upon  consequences  merely." 


356  TENDENCIES   OF   RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

"  The  reverence  wliich,"  says  Dr.  Whewell,  "handed  down  by 
the  traditions  of  ages  of  moral  and  religions  teaching,  had  hitherto 
protected  the  accustomed  forms  of  moral  good,  was  gradually  re- 
moved. Vice  and  crime  and  sin  ceased  to  be  words  that  tenified 
the  popular  speculator.  Virtue  and  goodness  and  purity  were  no 
longer  things  which  he  looked  up  to  with  mute  respect.  He  ven- 
tured to  lay  a  sacrilegious  hand  even  upon  these  hallowed  shapes. 
He  saw,  that,  when  this  had  been  dared  by  audacious  theorists, 
those  objects,  so  long  venerated,  seemed  to  have  no  power  of  pun- 
ishing the  bold  intruder.  There  was  a  scene  like  that  which  oc- 
curred when  the  Barbarians  broke  into  the  Eternal  City.  At  first, 
in  spite  of  themselves,  they  were  awed  by  the  divine  aspect  of  the 
ancient  magistrates ;  but,  when  once  their  leader  had  smitten  one 
of  these  venei'able  figures  with  impunity,  the  coarse  and  violent 
mob  rushed  onwards,  and  exultingly  mingled  all  in  one  common 
destruction."  —  Moral  Philosophy  in  England,  p.  79. 

The  actual  sequence  of  cause  and  effect  seems,  if  it 
be  not  presumptuous  to  say  so,  to  be  as  nearly  as  pos- 
sible inverted  in  this  eloquent  statement.  Tlie  licen- 
tiousness of  talk  and  manners  was  not  produced  by 
the  moral  doctrines  promulgated  ;  but  the  doctrine  of 
moral  consequences  was  had  recourse  to  by  the  divines 
and  moralists,  as  the  most  likely  remedy  of  the  pre- 
vailing licentiousness.  It  was  an  attempt,  well  meant 
but  not  successful,  to  arrest  tli^  wanton  proceedings 
of  "  the  coarse  and  violent  mob."  Good  men  saw 
with  alarm,  almost  with  despair,  that  what  they  said 
in  the  obsolete  language  of  religious  teaching  was  not 
listened  to,  and  tried  to  address  the  age  in  plain  and 
unmistakable  terms.  The  new  theory  of  consequences 
was  not  introduced  by  "  men  of  leisure,"  to  supplant 
and  overthrow  a  nobler  and  purer  view  of  religion 
and  morality  :  it  was  a  plain  fact  of  religion,  stated  in 
plain  language,  in  the  hope  of  deterring  the  wicked 
from  his  wickedness.  It  was  the  address  of  the  Old 
Testament  prophet,  "  Why  will  ye  die,  0  house  of 
Israel  ?  "  That  there  is  a  God  and  moral  Governor, 
and  that  obedience  to  his  commands  is  necessary  to 
secure  our  interests  in  this  world  and  the  next,  —  if 


IN  ENGLAND,   16S8-1750.  357 

any  form  of  rational  belief  can  control  the  actions  of 
a  rational  being,  it  is  surely  this.  On  the  rationalist 
hypothesis,  the  morality  of  consequences  ought  to 
produce  the  most  salutary  effects  on  the  general  be- 
havior of  mankind.  This  obligation  of  obedience,  the 
appeal  to  our  desire  of  our  own  welfare,  was  the  sub- 
stance of  the  practical  teaching  of  the  age.  It  was 
stated  with  great  cogency  of  reasoning,  and  enforced 
with  every  variety  of  illustration.  Put  its  proof  at 
the  lowest ;  let  it  be  granted  that  they  did  not  suc- 
ceed in  removing  all  the  objections  of  the  Deistical 
writers  :  it  must,  at  least,  be  allowed  that  they  showed, 
to  the  satisfaction  of  all  prudent  and  thinking  men, 
that  it  was  safer  to  believe  Christianity  true  than  not. 
The  obligation  to  practice  in  point  of  prudence  was  as 
perfect  as  though  the  proof  had  been  demonstrative. 
And  what  was  the  surprising  result  ?  That,  the  more 
they  demonstrated,  the  less  people  believed.  As  the 
proof  of  morality  was  elaborated  and  strengthened, 
the  more  it  was  disregarded,  the  more  ungodliness 
and  profaneness  flourished  and  grew.  This  is  cer- 
tainly not  what  we  should  antecedently  expect.  If, 
as  Dr.  Whewell  assumes,  and  the  whole  doctrinaire 
scliool  with  him,  the  speculative  belief  of  an  age 
determines  its  moral  ciiaracter,  that  should  be  the 
purest  epoch  where  the  morality  of  consequences  is 
placed  in  the  strongest  light ;  when  it  is  most  con- 
vincingly set  before  men  that  their  present  and  future 
welfare  depends  on  liow  they  act ;  that  "  all  we  enjoy, 
and  great  part  of  what  we  suffer,  is  placed  in  our  own 
hands." 

Experience,  however,  the  testimony  of  history,  dis- 
plays to  us  a  result  the  very  reverse.  The  experiment 
of  the  eighteenth  qentury  may  surely  be  considered 


358  TENDENCIES   OF  RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

as  a  decisive  one  on  this  point.  The  failure  of  a  pru- 
dential system  of  ethics  as  a  restraining  force  upon 
society  was  perceived,  or  felt  in  the  way  of  reaction,  by 
the  Evangelical  and  Methodist  generation  of  teachers 
who  succeeded  the  Hanoverian  divines.  So  far,  their 
perception  was  just.  They  went  on  to  infer,  that, 
because  the  circulation  of  one  system  of  belief  had 
been  inefficacious,  they  should  try  the  eifect  of  in- 
culcating a  set  of  truths  as  widely  remote  from  the 
former  as  possible.  Because  legal  preaching,  as  they 
phrased  it,  had  failed,  they  would  essay  gospel  preach- 
ing. The  preaching  of  justification  by  works  had  not 
the  power  to  check  wickedness  :  therefore  justification 
by  faith,  the  doctrine  of  the  Reformation,  was  the  only 
saving  truth.  This  is  not  meant  as  a  complete  account 
of  the  origin  of  the  Evangelical  school.  It  is  only 
one  point  of  view,  —  that  point  which  connects  the 
school  with  the  general  line  of  thought  this  paper  has 
been  pursuing.  Their  doctrine  of  conversion  by  su- 
pernatural influence  must  on  no  account  be  forgotten. 
Yet  it  appears  that  they  thought  that  the  channel  of 
this  supernatural  influence  was,  in  some  way  or  other, 
preaching ;  preaching,  too,  not  as  rhetoric,  but  as 
the  annunciation  of  a  specific  doctrine,  —  the  gospel. 
They  certainly  insisted  on  "  the  heart"  being  touched, 
and  that  the  Spirit  only  had  the  power  savingly  to 
affect  the  heart ;  but  they  acted  as  though  this  were 
done  by  an  appeal  to  the  reason,  and  scornfully  rejected 
the  idea  of  religious  education. 

It  should  also  be  remarked,  that  even  the  divines  of 
the  Hanoverian  school  were  not  wholly  blind  to  some 
flaw  in  their  theory,  and  to  the  practical  efficacy  of 
their  doctrine.  Not  tliat  they  underrated  the  force 
of  their  demonstrations.     As  has  been  already  said, 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  359 

the  greater  part  of  them  overestimated  then-  convin- 
cingness ;  but  they  could  not  but  see  that  they  did  not, 
in  fact,  convince.  When  this  was  forced  upon  their 
observation  ;  when  they  perceived  that  an  a  priori  dem- 
onstration of  rehgion  might  be  placed  before  a  man, 
and  that  he  did  not  see  its  force,  —  then,  inconsequent 
with  their  own  theory,  they  had  recourse  to  the 
notion  of  moral  culpability.  If  a  person  refused  to 
admit  the  evidence  for  revelation,  it  was  because  he 
did  not  examine  it  with  a  dispassionate  mind.  His 
understanding  was  biased  by  his  wishes  ;  some  illicit 
passion  he  was  resolved  on  gratifying,  but  which 
prudence,  forsooth,  would  not  have  allowed  him  to 
gratify,  so  long  as  he  continued  to  believe  in  a  future 
judgment.  The  wish  that  there  were  no  God  suggested 
the  thought  that  there  is  not.  Speculative  unbelief 
is  thus  asserted  to  be  a  consequence  of  a  bad  heart : 
it  is  the  grounds  upon  which  we  endeavor  to  prove 
to  ourselves  and  others  that  the  indulgence  of  our 
passions  is  consistent  with  a  rational  prudence.  As 
levelled  against  an  individual  opponent,  this  is  a  poor 
controversial  shift.  Many  of  the  Deists  were  men  of 
worth  and  probity  :  of  none  of  them  is  anything  known 
which  would  make  them  worse  men  than  the  average 
of  their  class  in  hfe.  Mr.  Chichester  ("  Deism  com- 
pared with  Christianity,"  1821,  vol.  iii.  p.  220)  says, 
"  Tindal  was  infamous  for  vice  in  general ;  "  but  I 
have  not  been  able  to  trace  his  authority  for  the 
assertion.  As  an  imputation,  not  against  individual 
unbelievers,  but  against  the  competency  of  reason  in 
general,  it  may  be  true,  but  it  is  quite  inconsistent  with 
the  general  hypothesis  of  the  school  of  reasoners  who 
brought  it.  If  reason  be  liable  to  an  influence  which 
warps  it,  then  there  is  required   some   force   which 


360  TENDENCIES   OF  RELIGIOUS   THOUGHT 

shall  keep  this  influence  under,  and  reason  alone  is  no 
longer  the  all-sufficient  judge  of  truth.  In  this  way 
we  should  be  forced  back  to  the  old  orthodox  doctrine 
of  the  chronic  impotence  of  reason,  superinduced  upon 
it  by  the  Fall ;  a  doctrine  which  the  reigning  ortho- 
doxy had  tacitly  renounced. 

.  In  the  Catholic  theory,  the  feebleness  of  Reason  is 
met  half  way,  and  made  good  by  the  authority  of  the 
Church.  When  the  Protestants  threw  ofl*  this  autlior- 
ity,  they  did  not  assign  to  Reason  what  they  took 
from  the  Church,  but  to  Scripture.  Calvin  did  not 
shrink  from  saying  that  Scripture  "  shone  sufficiently 
by  its  own  light."  As  long  as  this  could  be  kept  to, 
the  Protestant  theory  of  belief  was  whole  and  sound  ; 
at  least,  it  was  as  sound  as  the  Catholic.  In  both. 
Reason,  aided  by  spiritual  illumination,  performs  the 
subordinate  function  of  recognizing  the  supreme  au- 
thority of  the  Church  and  of  the  Bible  respectively. 
Time,  learned  controversy,  and  abatement  of  zeal, 
drove  the  Protestants  generally  from  the  hardy  but 
irrational  assertion  of  Calvin.  Every  foot  of  ground 
that  Scripture  lost  was  gained  by  one  or  other  of  the 
three  substitutes,  —  Church-authority,  the  Spirit,  or 
Reason.  Church-authority  was  essayed  by  the  Lau- 
dian  divines,  but  was  soon  found  untenable ;  for,  on 
that  footing,  it  was  found  impossible  to  justify  the 
Reformation  and  the  breach  with  Rome.  Tlie  Spirit 
then  came  into  favor  along  with  Independency.  But 
it  was  still  more  quickly  discovered,  that,  on  such  a 
basis,  only  discord  and  disunion  could  be  reared. 
There  remained  to  be  tried  Common  Reason,  carefully 
distinguished  from  recondite  learning,  and  not  based 
on  metaphysical  assumptions.  To  apply  this  instru- 
ment to  the  contents  of  revelation  was  the  occupation 


IN  ENGLAND,   1688-1750.  361 

of  the  early  half  of  the  eighteenth  century ;  with  what 
success  has  been  seen.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  cen- 
tury, the  same  Common  Reason  was  applied  to  the 
external  evidences.  But  here  the  method  fails  in  a 
first  requisite,  —  universality  ;  for  even  the  shallowest 
array  of  historical  proof  requires  some  book-learning 
to  apprehend.  Further  than  this,  the  Lardner  and 
Paley  school  could  not  complete  their  proof  satisfacto- 
rily, inasmuch  as  the  materials  for  the  investigation 
of  the  first  and  second  centuries  of  the  Christian  era 
were  not  at  hand. 

Such  appears  to  be  the  past  history  of  the  Theory 
of  Belief  in  the  Church  of  England.  Whoever  would 
take  the  religious  literature  of  the  present  day  as  a 
whole,  and  endeavor  to  make  out  clearly  on  what  basis 
revelation  is  supposed  by  it  to  rest,  whether  on  Author- 
ity, on  the  Inward  Light,  on  Reason,  on  self-evidencing 
Scripture,  or  on  the  combination  of  the  four,  or  some 
of  them,  and  in  what  proportions,  would  probably  find 
that  he  had  undertaken  a  perplexing,  but  not  alto- 
gether profitless  inquiry. 


16 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OE  SCRIPTURE. 

By  benjamin  JOWETT,  M.  A. 

IT  is  a  strange  though  familiar  fact,  that  great  dif- 
ferences of  opinion  exist  respecting  the  interpre- 
tation of  Scripture.  All  Christians  receive  the  Old 
and  New  Testament  as  sacred  writings ;  but  they  are 
not  agreed  about  the  meaning  which  they  attribute 
to  them.  The  book  itself  remains  as  at  the  first :  the 
commentators  seem  rather  to  reflect  the  changing  at- 
mosphere of  the  world  or  of  the  Church.  Different 
.individuals,  or  bodies  of  Christians,  have  a  different 
point  of  view,  to  which  their  interpretation  is  nar- 
rowed, or  made  to  conform.  It  is  assumed  as  natural 
and  necessary,  that  the  same  words  will  present  one 
idea  to  the  mind  of  the  Protestant,  another  to  the 
Roman  Catholic  ;  one  meaning  to  the  German,  another 
to  the  English  interpreter.  The  Ultramontane  or  An- 
glican divine  is  not  supposed  to  be  impartial  in  his 
treatment  of  passages  which  afford  an  apparent  foun- 
dation for  the  doctrine  of  purgatory  or  the  primacy 
of  St.  Peter  on  the  one  hand  ;  or  the  three  orders  of 
clergy,  and  the  divine  origin  of  episcopacy,  on  the 
other.  It  is  a  received  view  with  many,  that  the 
meaning  of  the  Bible  is  to  be  defined  by  that  of 
the  Prayer-book ;  while  there  are  others  who  niter- 


ON  THE  INTERPKETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE.  363 

pret  "the  Bible,  and  the  Bible  only,"  with  a  silent 
reference  to  the  traditions  of  the  Reformation.  Phil- 
osophical differences  are  in  the  background,  into  wliich 
the  differences  about  Scripture  also  resolve  themselves. 
They  seem  to  run  up  at  last  into  a  difference  of  opin- 
ion respecting  revelation  itself ;  whether  given  beside 
the  human  faculties  or  through  them ;  whether  an 
interruption  of  the  laws  of  nature,  or  their  perfection 
and  fulfilment. 

This  effort  to  pull  the  authority  of  Scripture  in 
different  directions  is  not  peculiar  to  our  own  day: 
the  same  phenomenon  appears  in  the  past  history  of 
the  Church.  At  the  Reformation,  in  the  Nicene  or 
Pelagian  times,  the  New  Testament  was  the  ground 
over  which  men  fought :  it  might  also  be  compared  to 
the  armory  which  furnished  them  with  weapons.  Op- 
posite aspects  of  the  truth  which  it  contains  were 
appropriated  by  different  sides.  "Justified  by  faith 
without  works,"  and  "justified  by  faith  as  well  as 
works,"  are  equally  Scriptural  expressions:  the  one 
has  become  the  formula  of  Protestants  ;  the  other,  of 
Roman  Catholics.  The  fifth  and  ninth  chapters  of 
the  Romans,  single  verses  such  as  1  Cor.  iii.  15, 
John  iii.  3,  still  bear  traces  of  many  a  life-long  strife 
in  the  pages  of  commentators.  The  difference  of  in- 1 
terpretation  which  prevails  among  ourselves  is  partly  I 
traditional ;  that  is  to  say,  inherited  from  the  contro- ' 
versies  of  former  ages.  The  use  made  of  Scripture 
by  Fathers  of  the  Church,  as  well  as  by  Luther  and 
Calvin,  affects  our  idea  of  its  meaning  at  the  present 
hour. 

Another  cause  of  the  multitude  of  interpretations 
is  the  growth  or  progress  of  the  human  mind  itself. 
Modes   of  interpreting  vary  as   time   goes  on :   they 


364  ON   THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

partake  of  the  general  state  of  literature  or  knowl- 
edge. It  has  not  been  easily  or  at  once  that  mankind 
have  learned  to  realize  the  character  of  sacred  writ- 
ings :  they  seem  almost  necessarily  to  veil  themselves 
from  human  eyes  as  circumstances  change.  It  is  the 
old  age  of  the  world  only  that  has  at  length  under- 
stood its  childhood.  (Or  rather,  perhaps,  is  beginning 
to  understand  it,  and  learning  to  make  allowance  for 
its  own  deficiency  of  knowledge  ;  for  the  infancy  of 
the  human  race,  as  of  the  individual,  affords  but  few 
indications  of  the  workings  of  the  mind  within.) 
More  often  than  we  suppose,  the  great  sayings  and 
doings  upon  the  earth,  "  thoughts  that  breathe,  and 
words  that  burn,"  are  lost  in  a  sort  of  chaos  to  the 
apprehension  of  those  that  come  after.  Much  of  past 
history  is  dimly  seen,  and  receives  only  a  conventional 
interpretation,  even  when  the  memorials  of  it  remain. 
There  is  a  time  at  which  the  freshness  of  early  litera- 
ture is  lost :  mankind  have  turned  rhetoricians,  and  no 
longer  write  or  feel  in  the  spirit  w^hich  created  it.  In 
I  this  unimaginative  period,  in  which  sacred  or  ancient 
writings  are  partially  unintelligible,  many  methods 
I  have  been  taken  at  different  times  to  adapt  the  ideas 
1  of  the  past  to  the  wants  of  the  present.  One  age  has 
\  wandered  into  the  flowery  paths  of  allegory,  — 

"In  pious  meditation,  fancy-fed." 

Another  has  straitened  the  liberty  of  the  gospel  by  a 
rigid  application  of  logic  :  the  former  being  a  method 
which  was  at  first  more  naturally  applied  to  the  Old 
Testament ;  the  latter,  to  the  New.  Botli  methods  of 
interpretation,  the  mystical  and  logical,  as  they  may  be 
termed,  have  been  practised  on  the  Yedas  and  the  Ko- 
ran, as  well  as  on  the  Jewish  and  Christian  Scriptures ; 


ON  THE  INTERPEETATION  OF  SCRIPTURE.  365 

the  true  glory  and  note  of  divinity  in  these  latter 
being,  not  that  they  have  hidden,  mysterious,  or  double 
meanings,  but  a  simple  and  universal  one,  wliich  is 
beyond  them,  and  will  survive  them.  Since  the  re- 
vival of  literature,  interpreters  have  not  unfrequently 
fallen  into  error  of  another  kind,  from  a  pedantic  and 
misplaced  use  of  classical  learning  ;  the  minute  exam- 
ination of  words  often  withdrawing  the  mind  from 
more  important  matters.  A  tendency  may  be  observed 
within  the  last  century  to  clothe  systems  of  philosophy 
in  the  phraseology  of  Scripture.  But  new  wine  can- 
not thus  be  put  "  into  old  bottles."  Though  roughly 
distinguishable  by  different  ages,  these  modes  or  ten- 
dencies also  exist  together  :  the  remains  of  all  of  them 
may  be  remarked  in  some  of  the  popular  commentaries 
of  our  own  day. 

More  common  than  any  of  these  methods,  and  not 
peculiar  to  any  age,  is  that  which  may  be  called,  by 
way  of  distinction,  the  rhetorical  one.  The  tendency 
to  exaggerate  or  amplify  the  meaning  of  simple  words 
for  the  sake  of  edification  may  indeed  have  a  practical 
use  in  sermons,  the  object  of  which  is  to  awaken  not 
so  much  the  intellect  as  the  heart  and  conscience. 
/^Spiritual  food,  like  natural,  may  require  to  be  of  a 
certain  bulk  to  nourish  the  human  mind.  yBut  thiij 
"  tendency  to  edification "  has  had  an  unfortunate 
influence  on  the  interpretation  of  Scripture :  for  the 
preacher  almost  necessarily  oversteps  the  limits  of 
actual  knowledge  ;  his  feelings  overflow  with  the  sub- 
ject. Even  if  he  have  the  power,  he  has  seldom  the 
time  for  accurate  thought  or  inquiry  ;  and  in  the 
course  of  years  spent  in  writing,  perhaps,  without 
study,  he  is  apt  to  persuade  himself,  if  not  others,  of 
the  truth  of  his  own  repetitions.     The  trivial  consid- 


V. 


366  ON  THE  INTEEPEETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

eration  of  making  a  discourse  of  sufficient  length  is 
often  a  reason  why  he  overlays  the  words  of  Christ 
and  his  apostles  with  commonplaces.  The  meaning 
of  the  text  is  not  always  the  object  which  he  has  in 
view,  but  some  moral  or  religious  lesson  which  he  has 
found  it  necessary  to  append  to  it ;  some  cause  which 
he  is  pleading,  some  error  of  the  day  which  he  has  to 
combat.  And  while  in  some  passage  he  hardly  dares 
to  trust  himself  with  the  full  force  of  Scripture,  (Matt. 
V.  34 ;  ix.  13  ;  xix.  21  ;  Acts  v.  29,)  in  others  he 
extracts  more  from  words  than  they  really  imply 
(Matt.  xxii.  21 ;  xxviii.  20  ;  Rom.  xiii.  1,  &c.)  ;  being 
more  eager  to  guard  against  the  abuse  of  some  pre- 
cept than  to  enforce  it;  attenuating  or  adapting  the 
utterance  of  prophecy  to  the  requirements  or  to  the 
measure  of  modern  times.  Any  one  who  has  ever 
written  sermons  is  aware  how  hard  it  is  to  apply  Scrip- 
ture to  the  wants  of  his  hearers,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  preserve  its  meaning. 

The  phenomenon  which  has  been  described  in  the 
preceding  pages  is  so  familiar,  and  yet  so  extraordi- 
nary, that  it  requires  an  effort  of  thought  to  appreciate 
its  true  nature.  We  do  not  at  once  see  the  absurdity 
of  the  same  words  having  many  senses,  or  free  our 
minds  from  the  illusioiT^iat  the  apostle  or  evangelist 
must  h-ave  written  with  a  reference  to  the  creeds  or 
controversies  or  circumstances  of  other  timee.  Let 
it  be  considered,  then,  that  this  extreme  variety  of 
interpretation  is  found  to  exist  in  the  case  of  no  other 
book,  but  of  the  Scriptures  only.  Other  writings  are 
preserved  to  us  in  dead  languages, —  Greek,  Latin, 
Oriental ;  some  of  them  in  fragments,  all  of  them  orig- 
inally in  manuscript.  It  is  true  that  difficulties  arise 
in  the  explanation  of  these  writings,  especially  in  the 


ON   THE   INTERPEETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  367 

most  ancient,  from  our  imperfect  acquaintance  with 
the  meaning  of  words,  or  the  defectiveness  of  copies, 
or  the  want  of  some  historical  or  geographical  infor- 
mation which  is  required  to  present  an  event  or  char- 
acter in  its  true  bearing.  In  comparison  with  the 
wealth  and  light  of  modern  literature,  our  knowledge 
of  Greek  classical  authors,  for  example,  may  be  called 
imperfect  and  shadowy.  Some  of  them  have  another 
sort  of  difficulty,  arising  from  subtlety  or  abruptness 
in  the  use  of  language :  in  lyric  poetry  especially,  and 
some  of  the  earlier  prose,  the  greatness  of  the  thought 
struggles  with  the  stammering  lips.  It  may  be  ob- 
served, that  all  these  difficulties  occur  also  in  Scrip- 
ture :  they  are  found  equally  in  sacred  and  profane 
literature.  But  the  meaning  of  classical  authors  is 
known  with  comparative  certainty,  and  the  interpreta- 
tion of  them  seems  to  rest  on  a  scientific  basis.  It  is 
not,  therefore,  to  philological  or  historical  difficulties 
that  the  greater  part  of  the  uncertainty  in  the  interpre- 
tation of  Scripture  is  to  be  attributed.  No  ignorance 
of  Hebrew  or  Greek  is  sufficient  to  account  for  it. 
Even  the  Yedas  and  the  Zendavesta,  though  beset  by 
obscurities  of  language  probably  greater  than  are 
found  in  any  portion  of  the  Bible,  are  interpreted,  at 
least  by  European  scholars, vaccording  to  fixed  rules, 
and  beginning  to  be  clearly  understood. 

To  bring  the  parallel  home,  let  us  imagine  the  re- 
mains of  some  well-known  Greek  author,  as  Plato  or 
Sophocles,  receiving  the  same  treatment  at  the  hands 
of  the  world  which  the  Scriptures  have  experienced. 
The  text  of  such  an  author,  when  first  printed  by 
Aldus  or  Stephens,  would  be  gathered  from  the  im- 
perfect or  miswritten  copies  which  fell  in  the  way  of 
the  editors :    after  a  while,  older  and  better  manu- 


ON   THE   INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

scripts  come  to  light,  and  the  power  of  using  and  esti- 
mating the  value  of  manuscripts  is  greatly  improved. 
We  may  suppose,  further,  that  the  readings  of  these 
older  copies  do  not  always  conform  to  some  received 
canons  of  criticism.  Up  to  the  year  1550  or  1624,  al- 
terations, often  proceeding  on  no  principle,  have  been 
introduced  into  the  text.  But  now  a  stand  is  made  : 
an  edition  which  appeared  at  the  latter  of  the  two  dates 
just  mentioned  is  invested  with  authority  ;  this  author- 
ized text  is  a  piece  de  resistance  against  innovation. 
Many  reasons  are  given  why  it  is  better  to  have  bad 
readings  to  which  the  world  is  accustomed,  than  good 
ones  which  are  novel  and  strange ;  why  the  later  man- 
uscripts of  Plato  or  Sophocles  are  often  to  be  preferred 
to  earlier  ones  ;  why  it  is  useless  to  remove  imperfec- 
tions where  perfect  accuracy  is  not  to  be  attained.  A 
fear  of  disturbing  the  critical  canons  which  have  come 
down  from  former  ages,  is,  however,  suspected  to  be 
one  reason  for  the  opposition  ;  and  custom  and  prej- 
udice, and  the  nicety  of  the  subject,  and  all  the  ar- 
guments which  are  intelligible  to  the  many  against 
rthe  truth,  which  is  intelligible  only  to  the  few,  are 
thrown  into  the  scale  to  preserve  the  works  of  Plato 
or  Sophocles  as  nearly  as  possible  in  the  received 
text. 

Leaving  the  text,  we  proceed  to  interpret  and  trans- 
late. The  meaning  of  Greek  words  is  known  with 
tolerable  certainty,  and  the  grammar  of  the  Greek 
language  has  been  minutely  analyzed  both  in  ancient 
and  modern  times.  Yet  the  interpretation  of  Sopho- 
cles is  tentative  and  uncertain  :  it  seems  to  vary  from 
age  to  age.  To  some,  the  great  tragedian  has  appeared 
to  embody  in  his  choruses  certain  theological  or  moral 
ideas  of  his  own  age  or  country :  there  are  others  who 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  369 

find  there  an   allegory  of  the  Christian  religion,  or 
of  the  history  of  modern  Europe.     Several  schools  of 
critics  have  commented  on  his  vrorks.    To  the  English- 
man he  has  presented  one  meaning,  to  the  Frenchman 
another,  to  the  German  a  third.     The  interpretations 
have    also    differed  with    the    philosophical    systems 
which  the  interpreters  espoused.     To  one,  the  same 
words  have  appeared  to  bear  a  moral,  to  another  a 
symbolical  meaning  ;  a  third  is  determined  wholly  by     [ 
the  authority  of  old  commentators ;  while  there  is  a 
disposition  to  condemn  the  scholar  who  seeks  to  inter-     / 
pret  Sophocles  from  himself  only,  and  with  reference     ' 
to  the  ideas  and  beliefs  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived.    I 
And  the  error  of  such  an  one  is  attributed  not  only  to    J 
some  intellectual,  but  even  to  a  moral  obliquity,  which 
prevents  his  seeing  the  true  meaning. 

It  would  be  tedious  to  follow  into  details  the  absurd- 
ity which  has  been  supposed.  By  such  methods,  it 
would  be  truly  said  that  Sophocles  or  Plato  may  be 
made  to  mean  anything.  It  would  seem  as  if  some 
"  Novum  Organum  "  were  needed  to  lay  down  rules 
of  interpretation  for  ancient  literature.  Still  one 
other  supposition  has  to  be  introduced,  which  will 
appear,  perhaps,  more  extravagant  than  any  which 
have  preceded.  Conceive,  then,  that  these  modes  of 
interpreting  Sophocles  had  existed  for  ages ;  that 
great  institutions  and  interests  had  become  interwoven 
with  them,  and,  in  some  degree,  even  the  honor  of 
nations  and  churches:  is  it  too  much  to  say,  that, 
in  such  a  case,  they  would  be  changed  with  difficulty, 
and  that  they  would  continue  to  be  maintained  long 
after  critics  and  philosophers  had  seen  that  they  were 
indefensible  ? 

No  one  who  has  a  Christian  feeling  would  place 
1*6*  X 


370  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

classical  on  a  level  with  sacred  literature :  and  there 
are  other  particulars  in  which  the  preceding  compar- 
ison fails ;  as,  for  example,  the  style  and  subject. 
But,  however  different  the  subject,  although  the  inter- 
pretation of  Scripture  requires  "  a  vision  and  faculty 
divine,"  or  at  least  a  moral  and  religious  interest 
which  is  not  needed  in  the  study  of  a  Greek  poet 
or  philosopher;  yet,  in  what  may  be  termed  the  ex- 
ternals of  interpretation,  —  that  is  to  say,  the  meaning 
of  words,  the  connection  of  sentences,  the  settlement 
of  the  text,  the  evidence  of  facts,  —  the  same  rules 
apply  to  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  as  to  other 
books.  And  the  figure  is  no  exaggeration  of  the  err- 
ing fancy  of  men  in  the  use  of  Scripture,  or  of  the 
tenacity  with  which  they  cling  to  the  interpretations 
of  other  times,  or  of  the  arguments  by  which  they 
maintain  them.  All  the  resources  of  knowledge  may 
be  turned  into  a  means,  not  of  discovering  the  true 
rendering,  but  of  upholding  a  received  one.  Gram- 
mar appears  to  start  from  an  independent  point  of 
view ;  yet  inquires  into  the  use  of  the  article  or  the 
preposition  have  been  observed  to  wind  round  into  a 
defence  of  some  doctrine.  Rhetoric  often  magnifies 
its  own  want  of  taste  into  the  design  of  inspiration. 
Logic  (that  other  mode  of  rhetoric)  is  apt  to  lend  itself 
to  the  illusion,  by  stating  erroneous  explanations  with 
a  clearness  which  is  mistaken  for  truth.  "  Metaphysi- 
cal aid  "  carries  away  the  common  understanding  into 
a  region  where  it  must  blindly  follow.  Learning 
obscures  as  well  as  illustrates :  it  heaps  up  chaff 
when  there  is  no  more  wheat.  These  are  some  of 
the  ways  in  which  the  sense  of  Scripture  has  become 
confused,  by  the  help  of  tradition,  in  the  course  of 
ages,  under  a  load  of  commentators. 


ON  THE  INTERPEETATION  OF  SCRIPTURE.  371 

The  book  itself  remains,  as  at  the  first,  unchanged 
amid  the  changing  interpretations  of  it.  The  office 
of  the  interpreter  is,  not  to  add  another,  but  to  recover 
the  original  one  ;  the  meaning,  that  is,  of  the  words 
as  they  first  struck  on  the  ears  or  flashed  before  the 
eyes  of  those  who  heard  and  read  them.  He  has  to 
transfer  himself  to  another  age  ;  to  imagine  that  he 
is  a  disciple  of  Christ  or  Paul ;  to  disengage  himself 
from  all  that  follows.  The  history  of  Christendom 
is  nothing  to  him ;  but  only  the  scene  at  Galilee  or 
Jerusalem,  the  handful  of  believers  who  gathered 
themselves  together  at  Ephesus  or  Corinth  or  Rome. 
His  eye  is  fixed  on  the  form  of  one  like  the  Son  of 
man,  or  of  the  prophet  who  was  girded  with  a  gar- 
ment of  camel's  hair,  or  of  the  apostle  who  had  a 
thorn  in  the  flesh.  The  greatness  of  the  Roman  Em- 
pire is  nothing  to  him :  it  is  an  inner,  not  an  outer 
world  that  he  is  striving  to  restore.  All  the  after- 
thoughts of  theology  are  nothing  to  him :  they  are 
not  the  true  lights  which  light  him  in  difficult  places. 
His  concern  is  with  a  book,  in  which,  as  in  other 
ancient  writings,  are  some  things  of  which  we  are 
ignorant  ;  which  defect  of  our  knowledge  cannot, 
however,  be  supplied  by  the  conjectures  of  fathers 
or  divines.  The  simple  words  of  that  book  he  tries 
to  preserve  absolutely  pure  from  the  refinements  or 
distinctions  of  later  times.  He  acknowledges  that 
they  are  fragmentary ;  and  would  suspect  himself,  if 
out  of  fragments  he  were  able  to  create  a  well-rounded 
system  or  a  continuous  history.  The  greater  part 
of  his  learning  is  a  knowledge  of  the  text  itself: 
he  has  no  delight  in  the  voluminous  literature  which 
has  overgrown  it.  He  has  no  theory  of  interpreta- 
tion :  a  few  rules  guarding  against  common  errors  are 


372  ON  THE  INTERPKETATION  OF  SCRIPTURE. 

enough  for  him.  His  object  is  to  read  Scripture,  like 
any  other  book,  with  a  real  interest,  and  not  merely  a 
conventional  one.  He  wants  to  be  able  to  open  his 
eyes,  and  to  see  or  imagine  things  as  they  truly  are. 

Nothing  would  be  more  likely  to  restore  a  natural 
feeling  on  this  subject  than  a  history  of  the  interpreta- 
tion of  Scripture.  It  would  take  us  back  to  the  be- 
ginning ;  it  would  present  in  one  view  the  causes 
which  have  darkened  the  meaning  of  words  in  the 
course  of  ages  ;  it  would  clear  away  the  remains  of 
doo'mas,  systems,  controversies,  which  are  incrusted 
upon  them.  It  would  show  us  the  "  erring  fancy  "  of 
interpreters  assuming  sometimes  to  have  the  Spirit 
of  God  himself,  yet  unable  to  pass  beyond  the  limits  of 
their  own  age,  and  with  a  judgment  often  biased  by 
party.  Great  names  there  have  been  among  them,  — 
names  of  men  who  may  be  reckoned  also  among  the 
benefactors  of  the  human  race  ;  yet  comparatively 
few  who  have  understood  the  thoughts  of  other  times, 
or  who  have  bent  their  minds  to  "  interrogate  "  the 
meaning  of  words.  Such  a  work  would  enable  us  to 
separate  the  elements  of  doctrine  and  tradition  with 
which  the  meaning  of  Scripture  is  encumbered  in  our 
own  day.  It  would  mark  the  different  epochs  of  in- 
terpretation from  the  time  when  the  living  word 
was  in  process  of  becoming  a  book  to  Origen  and 
TertuUian,  from  Origen  to  Jerome  and  Augustine, 
from  Jerome  and  Augustine  to  Abelard  and  Aquinas  ; 
again  making  a  new  beginning  with  the  revival  of 
literature,  from  Erasmus,  the  father  of  biblical  criti- 
cism in  more  recent  times,  with  Calvin  and  Beza  for 
his  immediate  successors,  through  Grotius  and  Ham- 
mond, down  to  De  Wette  and  Meier,  our  own  con- 
temporaries.    We   should   see   how   the   mystical  in- 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  373 

terpretation  of  Scripture  originated  in  the  Alexan- 
drian age ;  how  it  blended  with  the  logical  and 
rhetorical ;  how  both  received  weight  and  currency 
from  their  use  in  support  of  the  claims  and  teaching 
of  the  Church.  We  should  notice  how  the  "  new 
learning "  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries 
gradually  awakened  the  critical  faculty  in  the  study 
of  the  sacred  writings  ;  how  biblical  criticism  has 
slowly  but  surely  followed  in  the  track  of  philological 
and  historical  (not  without  a  remoter  influence  exer- 
cised upon  it  also  by  natural  science)  ;  how,  too,  the 
form  of  the  scholastic  literature,  and  even  of  notes  on 
the  classics,  insensibly  communicated  itself  to  com- 
mentaries on  Scripture.  We  should  see  how  the  word 
"  inspiration,"  from  being  used  in  a  general  way  to 
express  what  may  be  called  the  prophetic  spirit  of 
Scripture,  has  passed,  within  tlie  last  two  centuries, 
into  a  sort  of  technical  term  ;  how,  in  other  instances, 
the  practice  or  feeling  of  earlier  ages  has  been  hol- 
lowed out  into  the  theory  or  system  of  later  ones. 
We  should  observe  how  the  popular  explanations  of 
prophecy,  as  in  Heathen  (Thucyd.  ii.  54),  so  also  in 
Christian  times,  had  adapted  themselves  to  the  cir- 
cumstances of  mankind.  We  might  remark,  that  in 
our  own  country,  and  in  the  present  generation  espe- 
cially, the  interpretation  of  Scripture  had  assumed  an 
apologetic  character,  as  though  making  an  effort  to 
defend  itself  against  some  supposed  inroad  of  science 
and  criticism ;  while  among  German  commentators 
there  is,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
an  approach  to  agreement  and  certainty.  For  exam- 
ple, the  diversity  among  German  writers  on  prophecy 
is  far  less  than  among  English  ones.  That  is  a  new 
phenomenon  which  has  to  be  acknowledged.     More 


374  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

than  any  other  subject  of  human  knowledge,  biblical 
criticism  has  hung  to  the  past :  it  has  been  hitherto 
found  truer  to  the  traditions  of  the  Church  than  to 
the  words  of  Christ.  It  has  made,  however,  two 
great  steps  onward,  —  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation 
and  in  our  day.  The  diffusion  of  a  critical  spirit  in 
history  and  literature  is  affecting  the  criticism  of 
the  Bible  in  our  own  day,  in  a  manner  not  unlike  the 
burst  of  intellectual  life  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth 
centuries.  Educated  persons  are  beginning  to  ask, 
not  what  Scripture  may  be  made  to  mean,  but  what  it 
does.  And  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say,  that  he  who, 
in  the  present  state  of  knowledge,  will  confine  himself 
to  the  plain  meaning  of  words  and  the  study  of  their 
context,  may  know  more  of  the  original  spirit  and 
intention  of  the  authors  of  the  New  Testament  than 
all  the  controversial  writers  of  former  ages  put  to- 
gether. 

Such  a  history  would  be  of  great  value  to  philosophy 
as  well  as  to  theology :  it  would  be  the  history  of  the 
human  mind  in  one  of  its  most  remarkable  manifesta- 
tions. For  ages  which  are  not  original  show  their 
character  in  the  interpretation  of  ancient  writings. 
Creating  nothing,  and  incapable  of  that  effort  of  imagi- 
nation which  is  required  in  a  true  criticism  of  the 
past,  they  read  and  explain  the  thoughts  of  former 
times  by  the  conventional  modes  of  their  own.  Such 
a  history  would  form  a  kind  of  preface  or  prolegomena 
to  the  study  of  Scripture.  Like  the  history  of  sci- 
ence, it  would  save  many  a  useless  toil ;  it  would 
indicate  the  uncertainties  on  which  it  is  not  worth 
while  to  speculate  further ;  the  bypaths  or  labyrinths 
in  which  men  lose  themselves  ;  the  mines  that  are 
already  worked  out.     He  who  reflects  on  the  multi- 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE.  375 

tude  of  explanations  which  already  exist  of  the  '•  num- 
ber of  the  beast,"  "  the  two  witnesses,"  "  the  little 
horn,"  "the  man  of  sin;"  who  observes  the  manner 
in  which  these  explanations  have  varied  with  the  po- 
litical movements  of  our  own  time,  —  will  be  unwill- 
ing to  devote  himself  to  a  method  of  inquiry  in  which 
there  is  so  little  appearance  of  certainty  or  progress. 
These  interpretations  would  destroy  one  another,  if 
they  were  all  placed  side  by  side  in  a  tabular  analysis. 
It  is  an  instructive  fact,  which  may  be  mentioned  in 
passing,  that  Joseph  Mede,  the  greatest  authority  on 
this  subject,  twice  fixed  the  end  of  the  world  in  the 
last  century,  and  once  during  his  own  lifetime.  Li 
like  manner,  he  who  notices  the  circumstance  that 
the  explanations  of  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  have 
slowly  changed,  and,  as  it  were,  retreated  before  the 
advance  of  geology,  will  be  unwilling  to  add  another 
to  the  spurious  reconcilements  of  science  and  revela- 
tion. Or,  to  take  an  example  of  another  kind,  the 
Protestant  divine,  who  perceives  that  the  types  and 
figures  of  the  Old  Testament  are  employed  by  Roman 
Catholics  in  support  of  the  tenets  of  their  church, 
will  be  careful  not  to  use  weapons  which  it  is  impos- 
sible to  guide,  and  which  may  with  equal  force  be 
turned  against  himself.  Those  who  have  handled 
them  on  the  Protestant  side  have  before  now  fallen 
victims  to  them ;  not  observing,  as  they  fell,  that  it 
was  by  their  own  hand. 

Much  of  the  uncertainty  which  prevails  in  the  in- 
terpretation of  Scripture  arises  out  of  p^arty  efforts  to 
wrest  its  meaning  to  different  sides.  There  are,  how- 
ever, deeper  reasons  which  have  hindered  the  natural 
meaning  of  the  text  from  immediately  and  universally 
prevailing.     One  of  these  is  the  unsettlement  of  many 


376  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE. 

questions  which  have  an  important  but  indirect  bear- 
ing on  this  subject.  Some  of  these  questions  veil 
themselves  in  ambiguous  terms,  and  no  one  likes  to 
draw  them  out  of  their  hiding-place  into  the  light  of 
day.  In  natural  science,  it  is  felt  to  be  useless  to  build 
on  assumptions  ;  in  history,  we  look  with  suspicion  on 
d  priori  ideas  of  what  ought  to  have  been  ;  in  mathe- 
matics, when  a  step  is  wrong,  we  pull  the  house  down 
until  we  reach  the  point  at  which  the  error  is  discov- 
ered. But  in  theology  it  is  otherwise :  there  the 
tendency  has  been  to  conceal  the  unsoundness  of 
the  foundation  under  the  fairness  and  loftiness  of  the 
superstructure.  It  has  been  thought  safer  to  allow 
arguments  to  stand,  which,  although  fallacious,  have 
been  on  the  right  side,  than  to  point  out  their  defects ; 
and  thus  many  principles  have  imperceptibly  grown 
up  which  have  overridden  facts.  No  one  would  inter- 
pret Scripture,  as  many  do,  but  for  certain  previous 
suppositions  with  which  we  come  to  the  perusal  of  it. 
"  There  can  be  no  error  in  the  word  of  God :  "  there- 
fore the  discrepancies  in  the  books  of  Kings  and 
Chronicles  are  only  apparent,  or  may  be  attributed  to 
differences  in  the  copies.  "  It  is  a  thousand  times 
more  likely  that  the  interpreter  should  err  than  the 
inspired  writer."  For  a  like  reason,  the  failure  of  a 
prophecy  is  never  admitted,  in  spite  of  Scripture  and 
of  history  (Jer.  xxxvi.  30  ;  Isa.  xxiii.  ;  Amos  vii. 
10-17)  :  the  mention  of  a  name  later  than  the  sup 
posed  age  of  the  prophet  is  not  allowed,  as  in  othej 
writings,  to  be  taken  in  evidence  of  the  date.  (Isa. 
xlv.  1.)  The  accuracy  of  the  Old  Testament  is  meas- 
ured, not  by  the  standard  of  primeval  history,  but  of 
a  modern  critical  one,  which,  contrary  to  all  probabil- 
ity, is  supposed  to  be  attained :  this  arbitrary  standard 


ON   THE   INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  377 

once  assumed,  it  becomes  a  point  of  honor  or  of  faith 
to  defend  every  name,  date,  place,  which  occurs.  Or, 
to  take  another  class  of  questions,  it  is  said  that  "  the 
various  theories  of  the  origin  of  the  three  first  Gospels 
are  all  equally  unknown  to  the  Holy  Catholic  Church ; " 
or,  as  another  writer  of  a  different  school  expresses 
himself,  "  they  tend  to  sap  the  inspiration  of  the  New 
Testament."  Again  :  the  language  in  which  our  Sav- 
iour speaks  of  liis  own  union  with  the  Father  is  inter- 
preted by  the  language  of  the  creeds.  Those  who 
remonstrate  against  double  senses,  allegorical  interpre- 
tations, forced  reconcilements,  find  themselves  met  by 
a  sort  of  presupposition  that  "  God  speaks  not  as  man 
speaks."  The  limitation  of  the  human  faculties  is  con- 
fusedly appealed  to  as  a  reason  for  abstaining  from  in- 
vestigations which  are  quite  within  their  limits.  The 
suspicion  of  Deism,  or  perhaps  of  Atheism,  awaits 
inquiry.  By  such  fears  a  good  man  refuses  to  be 
influenced ;  a  philosophical  mind  is  apt  to  cast  them 
aside  with  too  much  bitterness.  It  is  better  to  close 
the  book,  than  to  read  it  under  conditions  of  thought 
which  are  imposed  from  without.  "Whether  those 
conditions  of  thought  are  the  traditions  of  the  Church, 
or  the  opinions  of  the  religious  world,  —  Catholic  or 
Protestant,  —  makes  no  difference  :  they  are  incon- 
sistent with  the  freedom  of  the  truth  and  the  moral 
character  of  the  gospel.  It  becomes  necessary,  there- 
fore, to  examine  briefly  some  of  those  prior  questions 
which  lie  in  the  way  of  a  reasonable  criticism. 

§  2.     _ 

Among  these  previous  questions,   that  which  first 

presents  itself  is  the  one  already  alluded   to,  —  the 

question  of  inspiration.     Almost  all  Christians  agree 

in  the  word,  which  use  and  tradition  have  consecrated 


378  ON  THE  INTERrRETATION  OF  SCRIPTURE. 

to  express  the  reverence  which  they  truly  feel  for  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments.  But  here  the  agreement 
of  ophiion  ends  :  the  meaning  of  inspiration  has  been 
variously  explained,  or  more  often  passed  over  in 
silence  from  a  fear  of  stirring  the  difficulties  that 
would  arise  about  it.  It  is  one  of  those  theological 
terms  which  may  be  regarded  as  "  great  peacemakers,'' 
but  which  are  also  sources  of  distrust  and  misunder- 
standing. For,  while  we  are  ready  to  shake  hands 
with  any  one  who  uses  the  same  language  as  ourselves, 
a  doubt  is  apt  to  insinuate  itself,  whether  he  takes 
language  in  the  same  senses ;  whether  a  particular 
term  conveys  all  the  associations  to  another  which  it 
does  to  ourselves  ;  whether  it  is  not  possible  that  one 
who  disagrees  about  the  word  may  not  be  more  nearly 
agreed  about  the  thing.  The  advice  has,  indeed,  been 
given  to  the  theologian,  that  he  "  should  take  care  of 
words,  and  leave  things  to  themselves."  The  author- 
ity, however,  who  gives  the  advice,  is  not  good  :  it  is 
placed  by  Goethe  in  the  mouth  of  Mephistopheles. 
Pascal  seriously  charges  the  Jesuits  with  acting  on  a 
similar  maxim,  —  excommunicating  those  who  meant 
the  same  thing,  and  said  another  ;  holding  communion 
with  those  who  said  the  same  thing,  and  meant  an- 
other. But  this  is  not  the  way  to  heal  the  wounds  of 
the  Church  of  Christ :  we  cannot  thus  "  skin  and 
film "  the  weak  places  of  theology.  Errors  about 
words,  and  the  attribution  to  words  themselves  of  an 
excessive  importance,  lie  at  the  root  of  theological  as 
of  other  confusions.  In  theology  they  are  more  dan- 
gerous than  in  other  sciences,  because  they  cannot  so 
readily  be  brought  to  the  test  of  facts. 

The  word  "  inspiration  "  has  received  more  numer- 
ous gradations  and  distinctions  of  meaning  than  per- 


ON  THE  INTERPEETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE.  379 

haps  any  other  in  the  whole  of  theology.  There  is 
an  inspiration  of  superintendence  and  an  inspiration 
of  suggestion ;  an  inspiration  which  would  have  been 
consistent  with  the  apostle  or  eyangelist  falling  into 
error,  and  an  inspiration  which  would  have  prevented 
him  from  erring ;  verbal  organic  inspiration  by  which 
the  inspired  person  is  the  passive  utterer  of  a  di- 
vine word,  and  an  inspiration  which  acts  through  the 
character  of  the  sacred  writer.  There  is  an  inspira- 
tion which  absolutely  communicates  the  fact  to  be 
revealed  or  statement  to  be  made,  and  an  inspiration 
which  does  not  supersede  the  ordinary  knowledge  of 
human  events.  There  is  an  inspiration  which  de- 
mands infallibility  in  matters  of  doctrine,  but  allows 
for  mistakes  in  fact.  Lastly,  there  is  a  view  of  inspi- 
ration which  recognizes  only  its  supernatural  and 
prophetic  character ;  and  a  view  of  inspiration  which 
regards  the  apostles  and  evangelists  as  equally  in- 
spired in  their  writings  and  in  their  lives,  and  in  both 
receiving  the  guidance  of  the  Spirit  of  truth  in  a 
manner  not  different  in  kind,  but  only  in  degi^ee,  from 
ordinary  Christians.  Many  of  these  explanations  lose 
sight  of  the  original  meaning  and  derivation  of  the 
word.  Some  of  them  are  framed  with  the  view  of 
meeting  difficulties  :  all,  perhaps,  err  in  attempting  to 
define  what,  though  real,  is  incapable  of  being  defined 
in  an  exact  manner.  Nor  for  any  of  the  higher  or 
supernatural  views  of  inspiration  is  there  any  founda- 
tion in  the  Gospels  or  Epistles.  There  is  no  appear- 
ance in  their  writings  that  the  evangelists  or  apostles 
had  any  inward  gift,  or  were  subject  to  any  power 
external  to  them  different  from  that  of  preaching  or 
teaching  which  they  daily  exercised;  nor  do  they 
anywhere  lead  us  .to  suppose  that  they  were  free  from 


880  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

error  or  infirmity.  St.  Paul  writes  like  a  Christian 
teacher,  exhibiting  all  the  emotions  and  vicissitudes 
of  human  feeling ;  speaking,  indeed,  with  authority, 
but  hesitating  in  difficult  cases,  and  more  than  once' 
correcting  himself,  —  corrected,  too,  by  the  course  of 
events  in  his  expectation  of  the  coming  of  Christ. 
The  evangelist  '^who  saw  it,  bare  record,  and  his 
record  is  true ;  and  he  knoweth  that  he  saith  true." 
(John  xix.  35.)  Another  evangelist  does  not  profess 
to  be  an  original  narrator,  but  only  "  to  set  forth  in 
order  a  declaration  of  what  eye-witnesses  had  de- 
livered," like  many  others  whose  writings  have  not 
been  preserved  to  us.  (Luke  i.  1,  2.)  And  the  result 
is  in  accordance  with  the  simple  profession  and  style 
in  which  they  describe  themselves :  there  is  no  ap- 
pearance, that  is  to  say,  of  insincerity,  or  want  of 
faith  ;  but  neither  is  there  perfect  accuracy  or  agree- 
ment. One  supposes  the  original  dwelling-place  of 
our  Lord's  parents  to  have  been  Bethlehem  (Matt.  ii. 
1,  22)  ;  another,  Nazareth  (Luke  ii.  4).  They  trace 
his  genealogy  in  different  ways.  One  mentions  the 
thieves  blaspheming ;  another  has  preserved  to  after- 
ages  the  record  of  the  penitent  thief.  They  appear 
to  differ  about  the  day  and  hour  of  the  crucifixion. 
The  narrative  of  the  woman  who  anointed  our  Lord's 
feet  with  ointment  is  told  in  all  four,  each  narrative 
having  more  or  less  considerable  variations.  Tliese 
are  a  few  instances  of  tlie  differences  which  arose  in 
the  traditions  of  the  earliest  ages  respecting  the  his- 
tory of  our  Lord.  But  he  who  wishes  to  investigate 
the  character  of  the  sacred  writings  should  not  be 
afraid  to  make  a  catalogue  of  them  all  with  the  view 
of  estimating  their  cumulative  weight.  (For  it  is 
obvious,  that  the  answer  which  would  be  admitted  in 


ON   THE   INTERPRETATION   OF    SCRIPTURE.  381 

the  case  of  a  single  discrepancy  will  not  be  the  true 
answer  when  there  are  many.)  He  should  further 
consider,  that  the  narratives  in  which  these  discrepan- 
cies occur  are  short,  and  partly  identical,  —  a  cycle 
of  tradition  beyond  which  the  knowledge  of  the  early 
Fathers  never  travels  ;  though,  if  all  the  things  that 
Jesus  said  and  did  had  been  written  down,  "  the  world 
itself  could  not  have  contained  the  books  that  would 
have  been  written."  (John  xx.  30  ;  xxi.  25.)  For  the 
proportion  which  these  narratives  bear  to  the  whole 
subject,  as  well  as  their  relation  to  one  another,  is  an 
important  element  in  the  estimation  of  differences. 
In  the  same  way,  he  who  would  understand  the  nature 
of  prophecy  in  the  Old  Testament,  should  have  the 
courage  to  examine  how  far  its  details  were  minutely 
fulfilled.  The  absence  of  such  a  fulfilment  may  fur- 
ther lead  him  to  discover  that  he  took  the  letter  for 
the  spirit  in  expecting  it. 

The  subject  will  clear  of  itself,  if  we  bear  in  mind 
two  considerations  :  First,  that  the  nature  of  inspira- 
tion can  only  be  known  from  the  examination  of  Scrip- 
ture. There  is  no  other  source  to  which  we  can  turn 
for  information ;  and  we  have  no  right  to  assume  some 
imaginary  doctrine  of  inspiration  like  the  infallibility 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  To  the  question, 
"  What  is  inspiration  ?  "  the  first  answer,  therefore,  is, 
"  That  idea  of  Scripture  which  we  gather  from  the 
knowledge  of  it."  It  is  no  mere  a  priori  notion,  but 
one  to  which  the  book  is  itself  a  vritness.  It  is  a  fact 
which  we  infer  from  the  study  of  Scripture,  —  not  of 
one  portion  only,  but  of  the  whole.  Obviously,  then, 
it  embraces  writings  of  very  different  kinds,  —  the 
Book  of  Esther,  for  example,  or  the  Song  of  Solomon, 
as  well  as  the  Gospel  of  St.  John.     It  is  reconcilable 


382  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF  SCRIPTURE. 

with  the  mixed  good  and  evil  of  the  characters  of  the 
Old  Testament,  which  nevertheless  does  not  exclude 
them  from  the  favor  of  God,  with  the  attribution  to 
the  Divine  Being  of  actions  at  variance  with  that 
higher  revelation  which  he  has  given  of  himself  in 
the  gospel.  It  is  not  inconsistent  with  imperfect  or 
opposite  aspects  of  the  truth,  as  in  the  Book  of  Job  or 
Ecclesiastes  ;  with  variations  of  fact  in  the  Gospels 
or  the  books  of  Kings  and  Chronicles ;  with  inaccu- 
racies of  language  in  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul.  For 
these  are  all  found  in  Scripture :  neither  is  there 
any  reason  why  they  should  not  be,  except  a  general 
impression  that  Scripture  ought  to  have  been  written 
in  a  way  different  from  what  it  has.  A  principle  of 
progressive  revelation  admits  them  all :  and  this  is 
already  contained  in  the  words  of  our  Saviour,  "  Mo- 
ses, because  of  the  hardness  of  you.r  hearts  ;  "  or  even 
in  the  Old  Testament,  "  Henceforth  there  shall  be  no 
more  this  proverb  in  the  house  of  Israel."  For  what 
is  progressive  is  necessarily  imperfect  in  its  earlier 
stages,  and  even  erring  to  those  who  come  after, 
whether  it  be  the  maxims  of  a  half-civilized  world 
which  are  compared  with  those  of  a  civilized  one,  or 
the  law  with  the  gospel.  Scripture  itself  points  the 
way  to  answer  the  moral  objections  to  Scripture. 
Lesser  difficulties  remain,  but  only  such  as  would  be 
found  commonly  in  writings  of  the  same  age  or  coun- 
try. There  is  no  more  reason  why  imperfect  narra- 
tives should  be  excluded  from  Scripture  than  imper- 
fect grammar  ;  no  more  ground  for  expecting  that  the 
New  Testament  would  be  logical  or  Aristotelian  in 
form,  than  that  it  would  be  written  in  Attic  Greek. 

The  other  consideration  is  one  which  has  been  neg- 
lected by  writers  on  this  subject.     It  is  this,  —  that 


ON  THE  INTERPKETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE.  383 

any  true  doctrine  of  inspiration  must  conform  to  all 
well-ascertained  facts  of  history  or  of  science.  The 
same  fact  cannot  be  true  and  untrue,  any  more  than 
the  same  words  can  have  two  opposite  meanings.  The 
same  fact  cannot  be  true  in  religion  when  seen  by  the 
light  of  faith,  and  untrue  in  science  when  looked  at 
through  the  medium  of  evidence  or  experiment.  It 
is  ridiculous  to  suppose  that  the  sun  goes  round  the 
earth  in  the  same  sense  in  which  the  earth  goes  round 
the  sun  ;  or  that  the  world  appears  to  have  existed, 
but  has  not  existed  during  the  vast  epochs  of  which 
geology  speaks  to  us.  But,  if  so,  there  is  no  need  of 
elaborate  reconcilements  of  revelation  and  science : 
they  reconcile  themselves  the  moment  any  scientific 
truth  is  distinctly  ascertained.  As  the  idea  of  nature 
enlarges,  the  idea  of  revelation  also  enlarges :  it  was 
a  temporary  misunderstanding  wliich  severed  them. 
And  as  the  knowledge  of  nature  which  is  possessed 
by  the  few,  is  communicated,  in  its  leading  features 
at  least,  to  the  many,  they  will  receive  with  it  a 
higher  conception  of  the  ways  of  God  to  man.  It 
may  hereafter  appear  as  natural  to  the  majority  of 
mankind  to  see  the  providence  of  God  in  the  order 
of  the  world,  as  it  once  was  to  appeal  to  interruptions 
of  it. 

It  is  true  that  there  are  a  class  of  scientific  facts, 
with  which  popular  opinions  on  theology  often  con- 
flict, which  do  not  seem  to  conform  in  all  respects  to 
the  severer  conditions  of  inductive  science :  such  es- 
pecially are  the  facts  relating  to  the  formation  of  the 
earth  and  the  beginnings  of  the  human  race.  But  it 
is  not  worth  while  to  fight  on  this  debatable  ground  a 
losing  battle,  in  the  hope  that  a  generation  will  pass 
away  before  we  sound  a  last  retreat.     Almost  all  Intel- 


■>! 


384  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

/  ligent  persons  are  agreed  that  the  earth  has  existed 
for  myriads  of  ages  :  the  best  informed  are  of  opinion 
that  the  history  of  nations  extends  back  some  thousand 
years  before  the  Mosaic  chronology.  Recent  discov- 
eries in  geology  may,  perhaps,  open  a  further  vista  of 
existence  for  the  human  species ;  while  it  is  possible, 
and  may  one  day  be  known,  that  mankind  spread,  not 
from  one,  but  from  many  centres  over  the  globe  ;  or, 
as  others  say,  that  the  supply  of  links  which  are  at 
present  wanting  in  the  chain  of  animal  life  may  lead 
to  new  conclusions  respecting  the  origin  of  man. 
Now,  let  it  be  granted  that  these  facts,  being  with 
the  past,  cannot  be  shown  in  the  same  palpable  and 
evident  manner  as  the  facts  of  chemistry  or  physiol- 
ogy ;  and  that  the  proof  of  some  of  them,  especially 
of  those  last  mentioned,  is  wanting :  still  it  is  a  false 
policy  to  set  up  inspiration  or  revelation  in  opposition 
to  them,  —  a  principle  which  can  have  no  influence 
on  them,  and  should  be  rather  kept  out  of  their  way. 
The  sciences  of  geology  and  comparative  philology  are 
steadily  gaining  ground  (many  of  the  guesses  of 
twenty  years  ago  have  become  certainties,  and  the 
guesses  of  to-day  may  hereafter  become  so).  Shall 
we  peril  religion  on  the  possibility  of  their  untruth  ? 
On  such  a  cast  to  stake  the  life  of  man,  implies,  not 
only  a  recklessness  of  facts,  but  a  misunderstanding 
of  the  nature  of  the  gospel.  If  it  is  fortunate  for 
science,  it  is  perhaps  more  fortunate  for  Christian 
truth,  that  the  admission  of  Galileo's  discovery  has 
forever  settled  the  principle  of  the  relations  between 
them. 
I  A  similar  train  of  thought  may  be  extended  to  the 
(  results  of  historical  inquiries.  These  results  cannot 
be  barred   by   the   dates  or  narrative  of  Scripture ; 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  385 

neither  should  they  be  made  to  wind  round  into  agree- 
ment with  them.  Again :  the  idea  of  inspiration  must 
expand,  and  take  them  in.  Their  importance  in  a 
religious  point  of  view  is,  not  that  they  impugn  or 
confirm  the  Jewish  history,  but  that  they  show  more 
clearly  the  purposes  of  God  towards  the  whole  human 
race.  The  recent  chronological  discoveries  from  Egyp- 
tian monuments  do  not  tend  to  overthrow  revelation, 
nor  the  Ninevite  inscriptions  to  support  it.  The  use 
of  them  on  either  side  may,  indeed,  arouse  a  popular 
interest  in  them  :  it  is  apt  to  turn  a  scientific  inquiry 
into  a  semi-religious  controversy.  And,  to  religion, 
either  use  is  almost  equally  injurious,  because  seem- 
ing to  rest  truths  important  to  human  life  on  the 
mere  accident  of  an  archaeological  discovery.  Is  it 
to  be  thought  that  Christianity  gains  anything  from 
the  deciphering  of  the  names  of  some  Assyrian  and 
Babylonian  kings,  contemporaries  chiefly  with  the 
later  Jewish  history  ?  As  little  as  it  ought  to  lose 
from  the  appearance  of  a  contradictory  narrative  of 
the  exodus  in  the  chamber  of  an  Egyptian  temple 
of  the  year  B.  C.  1500.  This  latter  supposition  may 
not  be  very  probable  ;  but  it  is  worth  while  to  ask 
ourselves  the  question,  whether  we  can  be  right  in 
maintaining  any  view  of  religion  which  can  be  affected 
by  such  a  probability. 

It  will  be  a  further  assistance  in  the  consideration 
of  this  subject,  to  observe  that  the  interpretation  of 
Scripture  has  nothing  to  do  with  any  opinion  respect- 
ing its  origin.  The  meaning  of  Scripture  is  one 
thing :  the  inspiration  of  Scripture  is  another.  It 
is  conceivable,  that  those  who  hold  the  most  differ- 
ent views  about  the  one  may  be  able  te  agree  about 
the  otlier.  Rigid  upholders  of  the  verbal  inspiration 
17  Y 


386  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF  SCRIPTURE. 

of  Scripture,  and  those  who  deny  inspn-ation  alto- 
gether, may  nevertheless  meet  on  the  common  ground 
of  the  meaning  of  words.  If  the  term  "  inspiration" 
were  to  fall  into  disuse,  no  fact  of  nature  or  history  or 
language,  no  event  in  the  life  of  man,  or  dealings  of 
God  with  him,  would  be  in  any  degree  altered.  The 
word  itself  is  but  of  yesterday,  not  found  in  the  earlier 
confessions  of  the  reformed  faith :  the  difficulties  that 
have  arisen  about  it  are  only  two  or  three  centuries 
old.  Therefore  the  question  of  inspiration,  though  in 
one  sense  important,  is  to  the  interpreter  as  though 
it  were  not  important :  he  is  in  no  way  called  upon 
to  determine  a  matter  with  which  he  has  nothing  to 
do,  and  which  was  not  determined  by  fathers  of  the 
Church  ;  and  he  had  better  go  on  his  way,  and  leave 
the  more  precise  definition  of  the  word  to  the  pro- 
gress of  knowledge  and  the  results  of  the  study  of 
Scripture,  instead  of  entangling  himself  with  a  theory 
about  it. 
/  It  is  one  evil  of  conditions  or  previous  suppositions 
in  the  study  of  Scripture,  that  the  assumption  of  them 
has  led  to  an  apologetic  temper  in  the  interpreters  of 
Scripture.  The  tone  of  apology  is  always  a  tone  of 
weakness,  and  does  injury  to  a  good  cause.  It  is 
the  reverse  of  "  Ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the 
truth  shall  make  you  free."  It  is  hampered  with  the 
necessity  of  making  a  defence,  and  also  with  previous 
defences  of  the  same  side  :  it  accepts,  with  an  ex- 
cess of  reserve  and  caution,  the  truth  itself,  when 
it  comes  from  an  opposite  quarter.  Commentators 
are  often  more  occupied  with  the  proof  of  miracles, 
than  with  tlie  declaration  of  life  and  immortality ; 
with  the  fulfilment  of  the  details  of  prophecy,  than 
with  its  life  and  power  ;  with  the  reconcilement  of 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE.  387 

the  discrepancies  in  the  narrative  of  the  infancy, 
pointed  out  by  Schleiermacher,  than  with  the  impor- 
tance of  the  gi^eat  event  of  the  appearance  of  the 
Saviour.  "  To  this  end  was  I  born,  and  for  this  cause 
came  I  into  the  world,  that  I  shoidd  bear  witness  unto 
the  truthP  The  same  tendency  is  observable  also  in 
reference  to  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  and  the  Epis- 
tles, which  are  not  only  brought  into  harmony  with 
each  other,  but  interpreted  with  a  reference  to  the 
traditions  of  existing  communions.  The  natural  mean- 
ing of  particular  expressions  —  as,  for  example,  "  Why 
are  they  then  baptized  for  the  dead  ?  "  (1  Cor.  xv.  29  ;) 
or  the  words,  "  because  of  the  angels  *'  (1  Cor.  xi.  10); 
or  "  This  generation  shall  not  pass  away  until  all  these 
things  be  fulfilled"  (Matt.  xxiv.  34)  ;  or,  "  Upon  this 
rock  will  I  build  my  Church  "  (Matt.  xvi.  18)  — is  set 
aside  in  favor  of  others,  which,  however  improbable, 
are  more  in  accordance  with  preconceived  opinions, 
or  seem  to  be  more  worthy  of  the  sacred  writers.  The 
language,  and  also  the  text,  are  treated  on  the  same 
defensive  and  conservative  principles.  The  received 
translations  of  Phil.  ii.  6  (''  Who,  being  in  the  form  of 
God,  thought  it  not  robbery  to  be  equal  with  God"), 
or  of  Rom.  iii.  25  ("  Whom  God  hath  set  forth  to  be 
a  propitiation  through  faith  in  his  blood"),  or  Rom. 
XV.  6  C  God,  even  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ"),  though  erroneous,  are  not  given  up  with- 
out a  struggle  ;  the  1  Tim.  iii.  16,  and  1  John  v.  7 
(the  three  witnesses),  though  the  first  ("  God  mani- 
fest in  the  flesh,"  QX  for  OX)  is  not  found  in  the  best 
manuscripts,  and  the  second  in  no  Greek  manuscript 
worth  speaking  of,  have  not  yet  disappeared  from  the 
editions  of  the  Greek  Testament  commonly  in  use  in 
England,  and  still  less  from  the  English  translation. 


388  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE. 

An  English  commentator,  who,  with  Lachman  and 
Tischendorf,  supported  also  by  the  authority  of  Eras- 
mus, ventures  to  alter  the  punctuation  of  the  doxology 
in  Rom.  ix.  5  ("  Who  is  over  all  God  blessed  forever  ") 
hardly  escapes  the  charge  of  heresy.  That,  in  most 
of  these  cases,  the  words  referred  to  have  a  direct 
bearing  on  important  controversies,  is  a  reason,  not 
for  retaining,  but  for  correcting  them. 

The  temper  of  accommodation  shows  itself  espe- 
cially in  two  ways :  first,  in  the  attempt  to  adapt  the 
truths  of  Scripture  to  the  doctrines  of  the  creeds ; 
secondly,  in  the  adaptation  of  the  precepts  and  max- 
ims of  Scripture  to  the  language  or  practice  of  our 
own  age.  Now,  the  creeds  are  acknowledged  to  be  a 
part  of  Christianity  :  they  stand  in  a  close  relation  to 
the  words  of  Christ  and  his  apostles.  Nor  can  it 
be  said  that  any  heterodox  formula  makes  a  nearer 
approach  to  a  simple  and  scriptural  rule  of  faith. 
Neither  is  anything  gained  by  contrasting  them  with 
Scripture,  in  which  the  germs  of  the  expressions  used 
in  them  are  sufficiently  apparent.  Yet  it  does  not 
follow  that  they  should  be  pressed  into  the  service  of 
the  interpreter.  The  growth  of  ideas  in  the  interval 
which  separated  the  first  century  from  the  fourth  or 
sixth,  makes  it  impossible  to  apply  the  language  of 
the  one  to  the  explanation  of  the  other.  Between 
Scripture  and  the  Nicene  or  Athanasian  Creed,  a 
world  of  the  understanding  comes  in,  —  that  world  of 
abstractions  and  second  notions :  and  mankind  are  no 
longer  at  the  same  point  as  when  the  whole  of  Chris- 
tianity was  contained  in  the  words,  "  Believe  on  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  mayest  be  saved  ;  "  when 
the  gospel  centred  in  the  attachment  to  a  living  or 
recently  departed  friend  and  Lord.     The  language  of 


ON  THE  INTEKPRETATION   OF  SCRIPTUKE.  389 

the  New  Testament  is  the  first  utterance  and  con- 
sciousness of  the  mind  of  Christ ;  or  the  immediate 
vision  of  the  Word  of  Life  (1  John  i.  1)  as  it  presented 
itself  before  the  eyes  of  his  first  followers,  or  as  the 
sense  of  his  truth  and  power  grew  upon  them  (Rom. 
i.  3,  4) :  the  other  is  the  result  of  three  or  four  cen- 
turies of  reflection  and  controversy.  And  although 
this  last  had  a  truth  suited  to  its  age,  and  its  technical 
expressions  have  sunk  deep  into  the  heart  of  the 
human  race,  it  is  not  the  less  unfitted  to  be  the 
medium  by  the  help  of  which  Scripture  is  to  be 
explained.  If  the  occurrence  of  the  phraseology  of 
the  Nicene  age  in  a  verse  of  the  Epistles  would  detect 
the  spuriousness  of  the  verse  in  which  it  was  found, 
how  can  the  Nicene  or  Athanasian  Creed  be  a  suitable 
instrument  for  the  interpretation  of  Scripture  ?  That 
advantage  which  the  New  Testament  has  over  the 
teaching  of  the  Church,  as  representing  what  may  be 
termed  the  childhood  of  the  gospel,  would  be  lost  if 
its  language  were  required  to  conform  to  that  of  the 
Creeds. 

To  attribute  to  St.  Paul  or  the  Twelve  the  abstract 
notion  of  Christian  truth  which  afterwards  sprang  up 
in  the  Catholic  Church,  is  the  same  sort  of  anachro- 
nism as  to  attribute  to  them  a  system  of  philosophy.  It 
is  the  same  error  as  to  attribute  to  Homer  the  ideas  of 
Thales  or  Heraclitus,  or  to  Thales  the  more  developed 
principles  of  Aristotle  and  Plato.  Many  persons,  who 
have  no  difficulty  in  tracing  the  growth  of  institutions, 
yet  seem  to  fail  in  recognizing  the  more  subtle  pro- 
gress of  an  idea.  It  is  hard  to  imagine  the  absence 
of  conceptions  with  which  we  are  familiar ;  to  go  back 
to  the  germ  of  what  we  know  only  in  maturity ;  to 
give  up  what  has  grown  to  us,  and  become  a  part 


390  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF  SCRIPTURE. 

of  our  minds.  In  the  present  case,  however,  the 
development  is  not  difficult  to  prove.  The  statements 
of  Scripture  are  unaccountable  if  we  deny  it :  the 
silence  of  Scripture  is  equally  unaccountable.  Ab- 
sorbed as  St.  Paul  was  in  the  person  of  Christ,  with 
an  intensity  of  faith  and  love,  of  which,  in  modern 
days  and  at  this  distance  of  time,  we  can  scarcely  form 
a  conception  ;  high  as  he  raised  the  dignity  of  his 
Lord  above  all  things  in  heaven  and  earth,  looking  to 
him  as  the  Creator  of  all  things,  and  the  head  of  quick 
and  dead,  —  he  does  not  speak  of  him  as  "  equal  to 
the  Father,"  or  "  of  one  substance  with  the  Father." 
Much  of  the  language  of  the  Epistles  (passages,  for 
example,  such  as  Rom.  i.  2 ;  Phil.  ii.  6)  would  lose 
their  meaning  if  distributed  in  alternate  clauses  be- 
tween our  Lord's  humanity  and  divinity.  Still  greater 
difficulties  would  be  introduced  into  the  Gospels  by 
the  attempt  to  identify  them  with  the  Creeds.  We 
should  have  to  suppose  that  he  was  and  was  not 
tempted ;  that,  when  he  prayed  to  his  Father,  he 
prayed  also  to  himself;  that  he  knew  and  did  not 
know  "  of  that  hour  "  of  which  he  as  well  as  the  angels 
were  ignorant.  How  could  he  have  said,  "  My  God, 
my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ?  "  or,  "  Father, 
if  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me  "  ?  How 
could  he  have  doubted  whetlier  "  when  the  Son 
Cometh,  he  shall  find  faith  upon  the  earth  "  ?  These 
simple  and  touching  words  have  to  be  taken  out  of 
their  natural  meaning  and  connection  to  be  made  the 
theme  of  apologetic  discourses,  if  we  insist  on  recon- 
ciling them  with  the  distinctions  of  later  ages. 

Neither,  as  has  been  already  remarked,  would  the 
substitution  of  any  other  precise  or  definite  rule  of  faith 
—  as,  for  example,  the  Unitarian  —  be  more  favorable 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF  SCRIPTURE.  391 

to  the  interpretation  of  Scripture.  How  could  the 
Evangelist  St.  John  have  said,  "  The  Word  was  God," 
or  "  God  was  the  Word  "  (according  to  either  mode  of 
translating)  ;  or  how  would  our  Lord  himself  have 
said,  "I  and  the  Father  are  one," — if  either  had 
meant  that  Christ  was  a  mere  man,  "  a  prophet,  or  as 
one  of  the  prophets  "  ?  No  one,  who  takes  words  in 
their  natural  sense,  can  suppose  that  "  in  the  begin- 
ning "  (John  i.  1)  means  "  at  the  commencement  of 
the  ministry  of  Christ ;  "  or  that  "  the  Word  was  with 
God,"  only  relates  "  to  the  withdrawal  of  Christ  to 
commune  with  God  ; "  or  that  "  the  Word  is  said  to  be 
God,"  in  the  ironical  sense  of  John  x.  35.  But,  while 
venturing  to  turn  one  eye  on  these  (perhaps  obsolete) 
perversions  of  the  meanings  of  words  in  old  oppo- 
nents, we  must  not  forget  also  to  keep  the  other  open 
to  our  own.  The  object  of  the  preceding  remark  is, 
not  to  enter  into  controversy  with  them,  or  to  balance 
the  statements  of  one  side  with  those  of  the  other,  but 
only  to  point  out  the  error  of  introducing  into  the 
interpretation  of  Scripture  the  notions  of  a  later  age 
which  is  common  alike  to  us  and  them. 

The  other  kind  of  accommodation  which  was  alluded 
to  above,  arises  out  of  the  difference  between  the  so- 
cial and  ecclesiastical  state  of  the  world  as  it  exists  in 
actual  fact,  and  the  ideal  which  the  gospel  presents 
to  us.  An  ideal  is,  by  its  very  nature,  far  removed 
from  actual  life.  It  is  enshrined,  not  in  the  material 
things  of  the  external  world,  but  in  the  heart  and 
conscience.  Mankind  are  dissatisfied  at  this  separa- 
tion :  they  fancy  that  they  can  make  the  inward  king- 
dom an  outward  one  also.  But  this  is  not  possible. 
The  frame  of  civilization,  that  is  to  say,  institutions 
and  laws,  the  usages  of  business,  the  customs  of  so- 


392  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF  SCRIPTURE. 

ciety,  —  these  are  for  the  most  part  mechanical,  capa- 
ble only  in  a  certain  degree  of  a  higher  and  spiritual 
life.  Christian  motives  have  never  existed  in  such 
strength  as  to  make  it  safe  or  possible  to  intrust  them 
with  the  preservation  of  social  order.  Other  interests 
are  therefore  provided,  and  other  principles,  often 
independent  of  the  teaching  of  the  gospel,  or  even 
apparently  at  variance  with  it.  "  If  a  man  smite  thee 
on  the  right  cheek,  turn  to  him  the  other  also,"  is  not 
a  regulation  of  police,  but  an  ideal  rule  of  conduct, 
not  to  be  explained  away,  but  rarely  if  ever  to  be 
literally  acted  upon  in  a  civilized  country  ;  or  rather 
to  be  acted  upon  always  in  spirit,  yet  not  without 
a  reference  to  the  interests  of  the  community.  If  a 
missionary  were  to  endanger  the  public  peace,  and 
come,  like  the  apostles,  saying,  ''  I  ought  to  obey  God 
rather  than  man,"  it  is  obvious  that  the  most  Christian 
of  magistrates  could  not  allow  him  (say,  in  India  or 
New  Zealand)  to  shield  himself  under  the  authority  of 
these  words.  For,  in  religion  as  in  philosophy,  there 
are  two  opposite  poles,  —  of  truth  and  action,  of  doc- 
trine and  practice,  of  idea  and  fact.  The  image  of 
God  in  Christ  is  over  against  the  necessities  of  human 
nature  and  the  state  of  man  on  earth.  Our  Lord 
himself  recognizes  this  distinction  when  he  says,  "  Of 
whom  do  the  kings  of  the  earth  gather  tribute  ?  "  and 
"  then  are  the  children  free."  (Matt.  xvii.  26.)  And 
again  :  ''  Notwithstanding,  lest  we  should  offend  them," 
&G.  Here  are  contrasted  what  may  be  termed  the  two 
poles  of  idea  and  fact. 

All  men  appeal  to  Scripture,  and  desire  to  draw  the 
authority  of  Scripture  to  their  side  :  its  voice  may  be 
heard  in  the  turmoil  of  political  strife  ;  a  merely  ver- 
bal similarity,  the  echo  of  a  word,  has  weight  in  the 


ON  THE  INTERPEETATION   OF   SCRIPTUEE.  393 

determination  of  a  controversy.  Such  appeals  are  not 
to  be  met  always  by  counter-appeals :  they  rather  lead 
to  the  consideration  of  deeper  questions  as  to  the 
manner  in  which  Scripture  is  to  be  applied.  In  what 
relation  does  it  stand  to  actual  life  ?  Is  it  a  law,  or 
only  a  spirit  ?  for  nations,  or  for  individuals  ?  to  be 
enforced  generally,  or  in  details  also  ?  Are  its  maxims 
to  be  modified  by  experience,  or  acted  upon  in  defi- 
ance of  experience  ?  Are  the  accidental  circumstances 
of  the  first  believers  to  become  a  rule  for  us  ?  Is 
everything,  in  short,  done  or  said  by  our  Saviour  and 
his  apostles,  to  be  regarded  as  a  precept  or  example 
which  is  to  be  followed  on  all  occasions,  and  to  last  for 
all  time  ?  That  can  hardly  be,  consistently  with  the 
changes  of  human  things.  It  would  be  a  rigid  skele- 
ton of  Christianity  (not  the  image  of  Christ),  to  which 
society  and  politics,  as  well  as  the  lives  of  individuals, 
would  be  conformed.  It  would  be  the  oldness  of  the 
letter,  on  which  the  world  would  be  stretched  ;  not 
"  the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  "  which  St.  Paul  teaches. 
The  attempt  to  force  politics  and  law  into  the  frame- 
work of  religion  is  apt  to  drive  us  up  into  a  corner,  in 
which  the  great  principles  of  truth  and  justice  have 
no  longer  room  to  make  themselves  felt.  It  is  better, 
as  well  as  safer,  to  take  the  liberty  with  which  Christ 
has  made  us  free.  For  our  Lord  himself  has  left 
behind  him  words  which  contain  a  principle  large 
enough  to  admit  all  the  forms  of  society  or  of  life : 
"  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world."  (John  xviii.  36.) 
It  does  not  come  into  collision  with  politics  or  knowl- 
edge ;  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  Roman  government 
or  the  Jewish  priesthood,  or  with  corresponding  insti- 
tutions in  the  present  day :  it  is  a  counsel  of  perfection, 
and  has  its  dwellin'g-place  in  the  heart  of  man.  That 
IT* 


394  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

is  the  real  solution  of  questions  of  Church  and  State  : 
all  else  is  relative  to  the  history  or  circumstances  of 
particular  nations.  That  is  the  answer  to  a  doubt 
which  is  also  raised  respecting  the  obligation  of  the 
letter  of  the  gospel  on  individual  Christians.  But  this 
inwardness  of  the  words  of  Christ  is  what  few  are  able 
to  receive  :  it  is  easier  to  apply  them  superficially  to 
things  without,  than  to  be  a  partaker  of  them  from 
within.  And  false  and  miserable  applications  of  them 
are  often  made,  and  the  kingdom  of  God  becomes  the 
tool  of  the  kingdoms  of  the  world. 

The  neglect  of  this  necessary  contrast  between  the 
ideal  and  the  actual  has  had  a  twofold  effect  on  the 
interpretation  of  Scripture.  It  has  led  to  an  unfair 
appropriation  of  some  portions  of  Scripture,  and  an 
undue  neglect  of  others.  The  letter  is  in  many  cases 
really  or  apparently  in  harmony  with  existing  prac- 
tices or  opinions  or  institutions.  In  other  cases  it  is 
far  removed  from  them :  it  often  seems  as  if  the  world 
would  come  to  an  end  before  the  words  of  Scripture 
could  be  realized.  The  twofold  effect  just  now  men- 
tioned corresponds  to  these  two  classes.  Some  texts 
of  Scripture  have  been  eagerly  appealed  to,  and  made 
(in  one  sense)  too  much  of ;  they  have  been  taken  by 
force  into  the  service  of  received  opinions  and  beliefs : 
texts  of  the  other  class  have  been  either  unnoticed, 
or  explained  away.  Consider,  for  example,  the  ex- 
traordinary and  unreasonable  importance  attached  to 
single  words,  sometimes  of  doubtful  meaning,  in  ref- 
erence to  any  of  the  following  subjects :  1.  Divorce  ; 
2.  Marriage  with  a  Wife's  Sister  ;  3.  Inspiration  ;  4.  The 
Personality  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  5.  Infant-Baptism ; 
6.  Episcopacy  ;  7.  Divhie  Bight  of  Kings  ;  8.  Original 
Sin.     There  is,  indeed,  a  kind  of  mystery  in  the  way 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE.  395 

in  which  the  chance  words  of  a  simple  narrative,  the 
occurrence  of  some  accidental  event,  the  use  even  of 
a  figure  of  speech,  or  a  mistranslation  of  a  word  in 
Latin  or  English,  have  affected  the  thoughts  of  future 
ages  and  distant  countries.  Nothing  so  slight  that 
it  has  not  been  caught  at ;  nothing  so  plain  that  it 
may  not  be  explained  away.  What  men  have  brought 
to  the  text  they  have  also  found  there  ;  what  has  re- 
ceived no  interpretation  or  witness,  either  in  the 
customs  of  the  Church  or  m  "  the  thoughts  of  many 
hearts,"  is  still  "  an  unknown  tongue  "  to  them.  It 
is  with  Scripture  as  with  oratory :  its  effect  partly 
depends  on  the  preparation  in  the  mind  or  in  circum- 
stances for  the  reception  of  it.  There  is  no  use  of 
Scripture,  no  quotation  or  even  misquotation  of  a 
word,  which  is  not  a  power  in  the  world,  when  it  em- 
bodies the  spirit  of  a  great  movement,  or  is  echoed 
by  the  voice  of  a  large  party. 

On  the  first  of  the  subjects  referred  to  above,  it  is 
argued  from  Scripture  that  adulterers  should  not  be 
allowed  to  marry  again ;  and  the  point  of  the  argu- 
ment turns  on  the  question,  whether  the  words  (^€Kro<; 
\oyov  TTopvela^')  "  saving  for  the  cause  of  fornication," 
which  occur  in  the  first  clause  of  an  important  text 
on  marriage,  were  designedly  or  accidentally  omitted 
in  the  second.  (Matt.  v.  32.)  "  Whosoever  shall  put 
away  his  wife,  saving  for  the  cause  of  fornication, 
causeth  her  to  commit  adultery ;  and  whoever  shall 
marry  her  that  is  divorced  committeth  adultery." 
(Compare  also  Mark  x.  11,  12.)  2.  The  Scripture 
argument  in  the  second  instance  is  almost  invisible, 
being  drawn  from  a  passage  the  meaning  of  which  is 
irrelevant  (Lev.  xviii.  18,  "  Neither  shalt  thou  take 
a  wife  to  her  sister  to  vex  her,  to  uncover  her  naked- 


396  ON  THE   INTERPEETATION  OF  SCRIPTUEE. 

ness  beside  the  other  in  her  lifetime"),  and  trans- 
ferred from  the  polygamy  which  prevailed  in  Eastern 
countries  three  thousand  years  ago  to  the  monogamy 
of  the  nineteenth  century  and  the  Christian  Church, 
in  spite  of  the  custom  and  tradition  of  the  Jews  and 
the  analogy  of  the  brother's  widow.  3.  In  the  third 
case,  the  word  (^deoirvevarof;')  ''  given  by  inspiration  of 
God  "  is  spoken  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  is  assumed 
to  apply  to  the  New,  including  that  Epistle  in  which 
the  expression  occurs.  (2  Tim.  iii.  16.)  4.  In  the 
fourth  example,  the  words  used  are  mysterious  (John 
xiv.  26  ;  xvi.  15),  and  seem  to  come  out  of  the  depths 
of  a  divine  consciousness :  they  have  sometimes,  how- 
ever, received  a  more  exact  meaning  than  they  would 
truly  bear  ;  what  is  spoken  in  a  figure  is  construed 
with  the  severity  of  a  logical  statement,  while  pas- 
sages of  an  opposite  tenor  are  overlooked  or  set  aside. 
5.  In  the  fifth  instance,  the  mere  mention  of  a  family 
of  a  jailer  at  Philippi  who  was  baptized  ("  he  and  all 
his,"  Acts  xvi.  33)  has  led  to  the  inference,  that  in 
this  family  there  were  probably  young  children  ;  and 
hence  that  infant  baptism  is,  first,  permissive  ;  sec- 
ondly, obligatory.  6.  In  the  sixth  case,  the  chief  stress 
of  the  argument  from  Scripture  turns  on  the  occur- 
rence of  the  word  (eTrtWovro?)  "bishop"  in  the  Epistles 
to  Timothy  and  Titus,  which  is  assisted  by  a  supposed 
analogy  between  the  position  of  the  apostles  and  of 
their  successors  :  although  the  term  " bishop"  is  clearly 
used  in  the  passages  referred  to,  as  well  as  in  other 
parts  of  the  New  Testament,  indistinguishably  from 
"  presbyter ; "  and  the  magisterial  authority  of  bishops 
in  after  ages  is  unlike  rather  than  like  the  personal 
authority  of  the  apostles  in  the  beginning  of  the  Gos- 
pel.     The   further   development   of  Episcopacy   into 


ON  THE  INTERPEETATION   OF  SCRIPTURE.  397 

apostolical  succession  has  often  been  rested  on  the 
promise,  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  —  even  to  the  end 
of  the  world."  7.  In  the  seventh  case,  the  precepts 
of  order  which  are  addressed  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
"  fifth-monarchy  men  of  those  days  "  are  transferred 
to  a  duty  of  obedience  to  hereditary  princes ;  the  fact 
of  the  house  of  David,  "  the  Lord's  anointed,"  sitting 
on  the  throne  of  Israel,  is  converted  into  a  principle 
for  all  times  and  countries ;  and  the  higher  lesson 
which  our  Saviour  teaches,  ''  Render  unto  Cassar  the 
things  which  are  Caesar's,"  — that  is  to  say,  "  Render 
unto  all  their  due,  and  to  God  above  all,"  — is  spoiled 
by  being  made  into  a  precept  of  political  subjection. 
8.  Lastly,  the  justice  of  God,  "  who  rewardeth  every 
man  according  to  his  works,"  and  the  Christian  scheme 
of  redemption  has  been  staked  on  two  figurative  ex- 
pressions of  St.  Paul,  to  which  there  is  no  parallel  in 
any  other  part  of  Scripture  (1  Cor.  xv.  22,  "  For  as 
in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made 
alive,"  and  the  corresponding  passage  in  Rom.  v.  12)  ; 
notwithstanding  the  declaration  of  the  Old  Testament 
as  also  of  the  New,  "  Every  soul  shall  bear  its  own 
iniquity,"  and  "  neither  this  man  sinned  nor  his  par- 
ents." It  is  not  necessary  for  our  purpose  to  engage 
further  in  the  matters  of  dispute  which,  have  arisen 
by  the  way  in  attempting  to  illustrate  the  general 
argument.  Yet,  to  avoid  misconception,  it  may  be 
remarked,  that  many  of  the  principles,  rules,  or  truths, 
mentioned,  —  as,  for  example,  Infant-Baptism,  or  the 
Episcopal  Form  of  Church  Government,  —  have  suf- 
ficient grounds  :  the  weakness  is  the  attempt  to  derive 
them  from  Scripture. 

With   this   minute   and   rigid   enforcement   of  the 
words  of  Scripttire  in  passages  where  the  ideas  ex- 


398  ON  THE  INTERPEETATION   OF   SCEIPTURE. 

pressed  in  them  either  really  or  apparently  agree 
with  received  opinions  or  institutions,  there  remains 
to  be  contrasted  the  neglect,  or  in  some  instances  the 
misinterpretation,  of  other  words  which  are  not  equal- 
ly in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the  age.  In  many  of 
our  Lord's  discourses,  he  speaks  of  the  "  blessedness 
of  poverty ; "  of  the  hardness  which  they  that  have 
riches  will  experience  "in  attaining  eternal  life."  — "  It 
is  easier  for  a  camel  to  go  through  a  needle's  eye  ; " 
and  "  Son,  thou  in  thy  lifetime  receivedst  thy  good 
tilings  ;  "  and  again,  ''  One  thing  though  lackest:  go,  sell 
all  that  thou  hast."  Precepts  like  these  do  not  appeal 
to  our  own  experience  of  life :  they  are  unlike  any- 
thing that  we  see  around  us  at  the  present  day,  even 
among  good  men.  To  some  among  us  they  will  recall 
the  remarkable  saying  of  Lessing,  "  that  the  Chris- 
tian religion  had  been  tried  for  eighteen  centuries: 
the  religion  of  Christ  remained  to  be  tried."  To  take 
them  literally  would  be  injurious  to  ourselves  and  to 
society  (at  least,  so  we  think).  Religious  sects  or 
orders  who  have  seized  this  aspect  of  Christianity 
have  come  to  no  good,  and  have  often  ended  in  extrav- 
agance. It  will  not  do  to  go  into  the  world,  saying, 
"  Woe  unto  you,  ye  rich  men  !  "  or,  on  entering  a  noble 
mansion,  to  repeat  the  denunciations  of  the  prophet 
about  "  cedar  and  vermilion  ;  "  or,  on  being  shown  the 
prospect  of  a  magnificent  estate,  to  cry  out,  "  Woe 
unto  them  that  lay  field  to  field,  that  they  may  be 
placed  alone  in  the  midst  of  the  earth  !  "  Times  have 
altered,  we  say,  since  these  denunciations  were  ut- 
tered :  what  appeared  to  the  prophet  or  apostle  a 
violation  of  the  appointment  of  Providence  has  now 
become  a  part  of  it.  It  will  not  do  to  make  a  great 
supper,  and  mingle  at  the  same  board  the  two  ends  of 


ON   THE   INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  399 

society,  as  modern  phraseology  calls  them  ;  fetching  in 
"  the  poor,  the  maimed,  the  lame,  the  blind,"  to  fill  the 
vacant  places  of  noble  guests.  That  would  be  eccen- 
tric in  modern  times,  and  even  hurtful.  Neither  is  it 
suitable  for  us  to  wash  one  another's  feet,  or  to  per- 
form any  other  menial  office,  because  our  Lord  set  us 
the  example.  The  customs  of  society  do  not  admit 
it ;  no  good  would  be  done  by  it,  and  singularity  is  of 
itself  an  evil.  Well,  then,  are  the  precepts  of  Christ 
not  to  be  obeyed  ?  Perhaps  in  their  fullest  sense  they 
cannot  be  obeyed.  But,  at  any  rate,  they  are  not  to 
be  explained  away  :  the  standard  of  Christ  is  not  to  be 
lowered  to  ordinary  Christian  life,  because  ordinary 
Christian  life  cannot  rise,  even  in  good  men,  to  the 
standard  of  Christ.  And  there  may  be  "  standing 
among  us  "  some  one  in  ten  thousand,  "  whom  we 
know  not,"  in  whom  there  is  such  a  divine  union  of 
charity  and  prudence,  that  he  is  most  blest  in  the 
entire  fiulfilment  of  the  precept,  — "  Go,  sell  all  that 
thou  hast,"  —  which,  to  obey  literally  in  other  cases, 
would  be  evil,  and  not  good.  Many  there  have  been, 
doubtless  (not  one  or  two  only),  who  have  given  all 
that  they  had  on  earth  to  their  family  or  friends,  — 
the  poor  servant  '•'  casting  her  two  mites  into  the  treas- 
ury ; "  denying  herself  the  ordinary  comforts  of  life 
for  the  sake  of  an  erring  parent  or  brother :  that  is  not 
probably  an  uncommon  case,  and  as  near  an  approach 
as  in  this  life  we  make  to  heaven.  And  there  may  be 
some  one  or  two  rare  natures  in  the  world,  in  whom 
there  is  such  a  divine  courtesy,  such  a  gentleness 
and  dignity  of  soul,  that  differences  of  rank  seem  to 
vanish  before  them,  and  they  look  upon  the  face  of 
others,  even  of  their  own  servants  and  dependants, 
only  as  they  are  in  the  sight  of  God  and  will  be  in 


400  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE. 

his  kingdom.  And  there  may  be  some  tender  and 
delicate  woman  among  us,  who  feels  that  she  has  a 
divine  vocation  to  fulfil  the  most  repulsive  offices 
towards  the  dying  inmates  of  a  hospital,  or  the  soldier 
perishing  in  a  foreign  land.  Whether  such  examples 
of  self-sacrifice  are  good  or  evil,  must  depend,  not 
altogether  on  social  or  economical  principles,  but  on 
the  spirit  of  those  who  offer  them,  and  the  power 
which  they  have  in  themselves  of  "  making  all  things 
kin."  And,  even  if  the  ideal  itself  were  not  carried 
out  by  us  in  practice,  it  has,  nevertheless,  what  may 
be  termed  a  truth  of  feeling.  "  Let  them  that  have 
riches  be  as  though  they  had  them  not." — "Let  the 
rich  man  wear  the  load  lightly :  he  will  one  day  fold 
them  up  as  a  vesture."  Let  not  the  refinement  of 
society  make  us  forget,  that  it  is  not  the  refined  only 
who  are  received  into  the  kingdom  of  God ;  nor  the 
daintiness  of  life  hide  from  us  the  bodily  evils  of 
which  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus  are  alike  heirs. 
Thoughts  such  as  these  have  the  power  to  reunite  us 
to  our  fellow-creatures,  from  whom  the  accidents  of 
birth,  position,  wealth,  have  separated  us :  they  soften 
our  hearts  towards  them,  when  divided  not  only  by 
vice  and  ignorance,  but,  what  is  even  a  greater  barrier, 
difference  of  manners  and  associations.  For,  if  there 
be  anything  in  our  own  fortune  superior  to  that  of 
others,  instead  of  idolizing  or  cherishing  it  in  the 
blood,  the  gospel  would  have  us  cast  it  from  us :  and, 
if  there  be  anything  mean  or  despised  in  those  with 
whom  we  have  to  do,  the  gospel  would  have  us  regard 
such  as  friends  and  brethren  ;  yea,  even  as  having  the 
person  of  Christ. 

Another  instance  of  apparent  if  not  real  neglect  of 
the  precepts  of  Scripture  is  furnished  by  the  com- 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  401 

mandment  against  swearing.  No  precept  about  di- 
vorce is  SO  plain,  so  universal,  so  exclusive,  as  this : 
*'  Swear  not  at  all."  Yet  we  all  know  how  the  custom 
of  Christian  countries  has  modified  this  "  counsel  of 
perfection  "  which  was  uttered  by  the  Saviour.  This 
is  the  more  remarkable,  because  in  this  case  the  pre- 
cept is  not,  as  in  the  former,  practically  impossible  of 
fulfilment,  or  even  difficult.  And  yet,  in  this  instance 
again,  the  body  who  have  endeavored  to  follow  more 
nearly  the  letter  of  our  Lord's  commandment  seem  to 
have  gone  against  the  common  sense  of  the  Christian 
world.  Or  to  add  one  more  example :  Who,  that 
hears  of  the  Sabbatarianism,  as  it  is  called,  of  some 
Protestant  countries,  would  imagine  that  the  Author 
of  our  religion  had  cautioned  his  disciples,  not  against 
the  violation  of  the  sabbath,  but  only  against  its  for- 
mal and  Pharisaical  observance  ?  or  that  the  chiefest 
of  the  apostles  had  warned  the  Colossians  to  "  let  no 
man  judge  them  in  respect  of  the  new  moon  or  of  the 
sabbath  days  "  ?  (ii.  16.) 

The  neglect  of  another  class  of  passages  is  even 
more  surprising ;  the  precepts  contained  in  them 
being  quite  practicable,  and  in  harmony  with  the  ex- 
isting state  of  the  world.  In  this  instance,  it  seems 
as  if  religious  teachers  had  failed  to  gather  those 
principles  of  which  they  stood  most  in  need.  "  Think 
ye  that  those  eighteen  upon  whom  the  Tower  of  Si- 
loam  fell  ?  "  is  the  characteristic  lesson  of  the  gospel 
on  the  occasion  of  any  sudden  visitation.  Yet  it  is 
another  reading  of  such  calamities  that  is  commonly 
insisted  upon.  The  observation-  is  seldom  made  re- 
specting the  parable  of  the  good  Samaritan,  that  the 
true  neighbor  is  also  a  person  of  a  different  religion. 
The  words,  "  Forbid  him  not ;  for  there  is  no  man, 

z 


402  ON  THE  INTERPKETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

which  shall  do  a  miracle  in  my  name,  that  can  lightly 
speak  evil  of  me,"  are  often  said  to  have  no  applica- 
tion to  sectarian  differences  in  the  present  day,  when 
the  Church  is  established  and  miracles  have  ceased. 
The  conduct  of  our  Lord  to  the  woman  taken  in  adul- 
tery, though  not  intended  for  our  imitation  always, 
yet  affords  a  painful  contrast  to  the  excessive  severity 
with  which  even  a  Christian  society  punishes  the  er- 
rors of  women.  The  boldness  with  which  St.  Paul 
applies  the  principle  of  individual  judgment,  "  Let 
every  man  be  fully  persuaded  in  his  mind,"  as  exhib- 
ited also  in  the  words  quoted  above,  "  Let  no  man 
judge  you  in  respect  of  the  new  moon  or  of  the  sab- 
bath days,"  is  far  greater  than  would  be  allowed  in 
the  present  age.  Lastly,  that  the  tenet  of  the  damna- 
tion of  the  Heathen  should  ever  have  prevailed  in  the 
Christian  world,  or  that  the  damnation  of  Catholics 
should  have  been  a  received  opinion  among  Protes- 
tants, implies  a  strange  forge tfulness  of  such  passages 
as  Rom.  ii.  1  - 16  :  "  Who  rewardeth  every  man  ac- 
cording to  his  work;"  and  "When  the  Gentiles,  which 
know  not  the  law,  do  by  nature  the  things  contained 
in  the  law,"  &c.  What  a  difference  between  the 
simple  statement  which  the  apostle  makes  of  the  jus- 
tice of  God,  and  the  "  uncovenanted  mercies "  or 
"  invincible  ignorance  "  of  theologians,  half  reluctant 
to  give  up,  yet  afraid  to  maintain,  the  advantage  of 
denying  salvation  to  those  who  are  extra  palum  Ec- 
ciesice  I 

The  same  habit  of  silence  or  misinterpretation  ex- 
tends to  words  or  statements  of  Scripture  in  which 
doctrines  are  thought  to  be  interested.  When  main- 
taining the  Athanasian  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  we  do 
not  readily  recall  the  verse,  "  Of  that  hour  knoweth  no 


ON  THE  INTEKPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  403 

man  ;  no,  not  the  angels  of  God  ;  neither  the  Son,  but 
the  Father."  (Mark  xiii.  32.)  The  temper  or  feeling 
which  led  St.  Ambrose  to  doubt  the  genuineness  of 
the  words  marked  in  Italics,  leads  Christians  in  our 
own  day  to  pass  them  over.  We  are  scarcely  just  to 
the  Millenarians,  or  to  those  who  maintain  the  contin- 
uance of  miracles  or  spiritual  gifts  in  the  Christian 
Church,  in  not  admitting  the  degree  of  support  which 
is  afforded  to  their  views  by  many  passages  of  Scrip- 
ture. The  same  remark  applies  to  the  Predestinarian 
controversy.  The  Calvinist  is  often  hardly  dealt  with, 
in  being  deprived  of  his  real  standing-ground  in  the 
third  and  ninth  chapters  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  ; 
and  the  Protestant,  who  thinks  himself  bound  to  prove 
from  Scripture  the  very  details  of  doctrine  or  disci- 
pline which  are  maintained  in  his  Church,  is  often 
obliged  to  have  recourse  to  harsh  methods,  and  some- 
times to  deny  appearances  which  seem  to  favor  some 
particular  tenet  of  Roman  Catholicism.  (Matt.  xvi. 
18,  19  ;  xviii.  18.  1  Cor.  iii.  15.)  The  Roman 
Catholic,  on  the  other  hand,  scarcely  observes  that 
nearly  all  the  distinctive  articles  of  his  creed  are  want- 
ing in  the  New  Testament.  The  Calvinist,  in  fact, 
ignores  almost  the  whole  of  the  sacred  volume  for 
the  sake  of  a  few  verses.  The  truth  is,  that,  in  seek- 
ing to  prove  our  own  opinions  out  of  Scripture,  we 
are  constantly  falling  into  the  common  fallacy  of 
opening  our  eyes  to  one  class  of  facts,  and  closing 
them  to  another.  The  favorite  verses  shine  like 
stars,  while  the  rest  of  the  page  is  thrown  into  the 
shade. 

Nor,  indeed,  is  it  easy  to  say  what  is  the  meaning 
of  "  proving  a  doctrine  from  Scripture : "  for,  when 
we  demand  logical  .equivalents  and  similarity  of  cir- 


404  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

cumstances ;  when  we  balance  adverse  statements, 
St.  James  and  St.  Paul,  the  New  Testament  with  the 
Old,  —  it  will  be  hard  to  demonstrate  from  Scripture 
any  complex  system  either  of  doctrine  or  practice. 
The  Bible  is  not  a  book  of  statutes,  in  which  words 
have  been  chosen  to  cover  the  multitude  of  cases ; 
but  in  the  greater  portion  of  it,  especially  the  Gospels 
and  Epistles,  "  like  a  man  talking  to  his  friend."  Nay, 
more :  it  is  a  book  written  in  the  East,  which  is,  in 
some  degree,  liable  to  be  misunderstood,  because  it 
speaks  the  language  and  has  the  feeling  of  Eastern 
lands.  Nor  can  we  readily  determine,ln  explaining 
the  words  of  our  Lord  or  of  St.  Paul,  how  much  (even 
of  some  of  the  passages  just  quoted)  is  to  be  attribut- 
ed to  Oriental  modes  of  speech.  Expressions  which 
would  be  regarded  as  rhetorical  exaggerations  in  the 
Western  world  are  the  natural  vehicles  of  thought  to 
an  Eastern  people.  How  great,  then,  must  be  the 
confusion  where  an  attempt  is  made  to  draw  out  these 
Oriental  modes  with  the  severity  of  a  philosophical 
or  legal  argument !  Is  it  not  such  a  use  of  the  words 
of  Christ  which  he  himself  rebukes  when  he  says, 
"  It  is  the  spirit  that  quickeneth  :  the  flesh  profiteth 
nothing"  ?  (John  vi.  52,  63.) 

There  is  a  further  way  in  which  the  language  of 
creeds  and  liturgies,  as  well  as  the  ordinary  theologi- 
cal use  of  terms,  exercises  a  disturbing  influence  on 
the  interpretation  of  Scripture.  Words  which  occur 
in  Scripture  are  singled  out  and  incorporated  in  sys- 
tems, like  stones  taken  out  of  an  old  building  and  put 
into  a  new  one.  They  acquire  a  technical  meaning 
more  or  less  divergent  from  the  original  one.  It  is 
obvious,  that  their  use  in  Scripture,  and  not  their 
later  and  technical  sense,  must  furnish  the  rule  of 


ON   THE   INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  405 

interpretation.  We  should  not  have  recourse  to  the 
meaning  of  a  word  in  Polybius  for  the  explanation  of 
its  use  in  Plato,  or  to  the  turn  of  a  sentence  in  Lyco- 
phron  to  illustrate  a  construction  of  ^schylus.  It  is 
the  same  kind  of  anachronism  which  would  interpret 
Scripture  by  the  scholastic  or  theological  use  of  the 
language  of  Scripture.  It  is  remarkable  that  this  use 
is  indeed  partial ;  that  is  to  say,  it  affects  one  class  of 
words,  and  not  another.  Love  and  truth,  for  example, 
have  never  been  theological  terms :  grace  and  faith, 
on  the  other  hand,  always  retain  an  association  with 
the  Pelagian  or  Lutheran  controversies.  Justification 
and  inspiration  are  derived  from  verbs  which  occur  in 
Scripture,  and  the  later  substantive  has  clearly  affect- 
ed the  meaning  of  the  original  verb  or  verbal  in  the 
places  where  they  occur.  The  remark  might  be  fur- 
ther illustrated  by  the  use  of  scriptural  language 
respecting  the  sacraments,  which  has  also  had  a  reflex 
influence  on  its  interpretation  in  many  passages  of 
Scripture,  especially  in  the  Gospel  of  St.  John.  (John 
iii.  5  ;  vi.  56,  &c.)  Minds  which  are  familiar  with  the 
mystical  doctrine  of  the  sacraments  seem  to  see  a 
reference  to  them  in  almost  every  place  in  the  Old 
Testament  as  well  as  in  the  New,  in  which  the 
words  "  water  "  or  ''  bread  and  wine  "  may  happen 
to  occur. 

Other  questions  meet  us  on  the  threshold,  of  a  dif- 
ferent kind,  which  also  affect  the  interpretation  of 
Scripture,  and  therefore  demand  an  answer.  Is  it 
admitted  that  the  Scripture  has  one,  and  only  one, 
true  meaning  ?  Or  are  we  to  follow  the  Fathers  into 
mystical  and  allegorical  explanations  ?  or,  with  the 
majority  of  modern  interpreters,  to  confine  ourselves 
to  the  double  senses  of  prophecy,  and  the  symbolism 


406         ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF  SCRIPTURK 

of  the  gospel  in  the  law  ?  In  either  case  we  assume 
what  can  never  be  proved  ;  and  an  instrument  is  intro- 
duced, of  such  subtlety  and  pliability  as  to  make  the 
Scriptures  mean  anything, —  Gallus  in  campamli,  as 
the  Waldenses  described  it ;  "  the  weathercock  on 
the  church-tower,"  which  is  turned  hither  and  thither 
})y  every  wind  of  doctrine.  That  the  present  age 
has  grown  out  of  the  mystical  methods  of  the  early 
Fathers  is  a  part  of  its  intellectiial  state.  No  one 
will  now  seek  to  find  hidden  meanings  in  the  scar- 
let thread  of  Rahab,  or  the  number  of  Abraham's  fol- 
lowers ;  or  in  the  little  circumstance  mentioned  after 
the  resurrection  of  the  Saviour,  that  St.  Peter  was 
the  first  to  enter  the  sepulchre.  To  most  educated 
persons  in  the  nineteenth  century,  these  applications 
of  Scripture  appear  foolish.  Yet  it  is  rather  the  ex- 
cess of  the  method  which  provokes  a  smile  than  the 
method  itself.  For  many  remains  of  the  mystical 
interpretation  exist  among  ourselves :  it  is  not  the 
early  Fathers  only  who  have  read  the  Bible  crosswise, 
or  deciphered  it  as  a  book  of  symbols.  And  the  un- 
certainty is  the  same  in  any  part  of  Scripture,  if  there 
is  a  departure  from  the  plain  and  obvious  meaning. 
If,  for  example,  we  alternate  the  verses  in  which  our 
Lord  speaks  of  the  last  things  between  the  day  of 
judgment  and  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  ;  or  in  the 
elder  prophecies,  which  are  the  counterparts  of  these, 
make  a  corresponding  division  between  the  temporal 
and  the  spiritual  Israel ;  or,  again,  if  we  attribute  to  the 
details  of  the  Mosaical  ritual  a  reference  to  the  New 
Testament ;  or,  once  more,  supposing  the  passage  of 
the  Red  Sea  to  be  regarded,  not  merely  as  a  figure 
of  baptism,  but  as  a  pre-ordained  type,  —  the  principle 
is  conceded.     There  is  no  good  reason  why  the  scar- 


ON  THE  mXEHPRETATION  OF   SCKIPTUKE.  407 

let  thread  of  Rahab  should  not  receive  the  explanation 
given  to  it  by  Clement.  A  little  more  or  a  little  less 
of  the  method  does  not  make  the  difference  between 
certainty  and  uncertainty  in  the  interpretation  of 
Scripture.  In  whatever  degree  it  is  practised,  it  is 
equally  incapable  of  being  reduced  to  any  rule :  it 
is  the  interpreter's  fancy ;  and  is  likely  to  be  not  less 
but  more  dangerous  and  extravagant,  when  it  adds 
the  charm  of  authority  from  its  use  in  past  ages. 

The  question  which  has  been  suggested  runs  up 
into  a  more  general  one,  —  "  the  relation  between  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments ; "  for  the  Old  Testament 
will  receive  a  different  meaning  accordingly  as  it  is 
explained  from  itself  or  from  the  New.  In  the  first 
case,  a  careful  and  conscientious  study  of  each  one  for 
itself  is  all  that  is  required :  in  the  second  case,  the 
types  and  ceremonies  of  the  law,  perhaps  the  very 
facts  and  persons  of  the  history,  will  be  assumed  to 
be  predestined  or  made  after  a  pattern  corresponding 
to  the  things  that  were  to  be  in  the  latter  days.  And 
this  question  of  itself  stirs  another  question  respecting 
the  interpretation  of  the  Old  Testament  in  the  New. 
Is  such  interpretation  to  be  regarded  as  the  meaning 
of  the  original  text,  or  an  accommodation  of  it  to  the 
thoughts  of  other  times  ? 

Our  object  is,  not  to  attempt  here  the  determination 
of  these  questions,  but  to  point  out  that  they  must  be 
determined  before  any  real  progress  can  be  made  or 
any  agreement  arrived  at  in  the  interpretation  of 
Scripture.  With  one  more  example  of  another  kind 
we  may  close  this  part  of  the  subject.  The  origin  of 
the  three  first  Gospels  is  an  inquiry  which  has  not 
been  much  considered  by  English  theologians  since 
the   days   of  Bishop   Marsh.      The   difficulty  of  the 


408  ON   THE  INTERPRETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE. 

question  has  been  sometimes  misunderstood  ;  the  point 
being,  how  there  can  be  so  much  agreement  in  words, 
and  so  much  disagreement  both  in  words  and  facts. 
The  double  phenomenon  is  the  real  perplexity ;  how, 
in  short,  there  can  be  all  degrees  of  similarity  and  dis- 
similarity, the  kind  and  degree  of  similarity  being 
such  as  to  make  it  necessary  to  suppose  that  large 
portions  are  copied  from  each  other  or  from  common 
documents ;  the  dissimilarities  being  of  a  kind  which 
seem  to  render  impossible  any  knowledge  in  the  au- 
thors of  one  another's  writings.  The  most  probable 
solution  of  this  difficulty  is,  that  the  tradition  on  which 
the  three  first  Gospels  are  based  was  at  first  pre- 
served orally,  and  slowly  put  together  and  written  in 
the  three  forms  which  it  assumed  at  a  very  early 
period  ;  those  forms  being  in  some  places,  perhaps, 
modified  by  translation.  It  is  not  necessary  to  de- 
velop this  hypothesis  further.  The  point  to  be  noticed 
is,  that,  whether  this  or  some  other  theory  be  the  true 
account  (and  some  such  account  is  demonstrably 
necessary),  the  assumption  of  such  a  theory,  or  rather 
the  observation  of  the  facts  on  which  it  rests,  cannot 
but  exercise  an  influence  on  interpretation.  We  can 
no  longer  speak  of  three  independent  witnesses  of 
the  Gospel  narrative.  Hence  there  follow  some  other 
consequences.  (1.)  There  is  no  longer  the  same 
necessity  as  heretofore  to  reconcile  inconsistent  nar- 
ratives :  the  harmony  of  the  Gospels  only  means  the 
parallelism  of  similar  words.  (2.)  There  is  no  longer 
any  need  to  enforce  everywhere  the  connection  of 
successive  verses  ;  for  the  same  words  will  be  found  to 
occur  in  different  connections  in  the  different  Gospels. 
(3.)  Nor  can  the  designs  attributed  to  their  authors 
be  regarded  as  the  free  handling  of  the  same  subject 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE.  409 

on  different  plans  ;  the  difference  consisting  chiefly  in 
the  occurrence  or  absence  of  local  or  verbal  explana- 
tions, or  the  addition  or  omission  of  certain  passages. 
Lastly,  it  is  evident  that  no  weight  can  be  given  to 
traditional  statements  of  facts  about  the  authorship,  — 
as,  for  example,  that  respecting  St.  Mark  being  the 
interpreter  of  St.  Peter,  —  because  the  Fathers  who 
have  handed  down  these  statements  were  ignorant  or 
unobservant  of  the  great  fact,  which  is  proved  by  in- 
ternal evidence,  that  they  are  for  the  most  part  of 
common  origin. 

Until  these  and  the  like  questions  are  determined 
by  interpreters,  it  is  not  possible  that  there  should  be 
agreement  in  the  interpretation  of  Scripture.  The 
Protestant  and  Catholic,  the  Unitarian  and  Trinitarian, 
will  continue  to  fight  their  battle  on  the  ground  of 
the  New  Testament.  The  Preterists  and  Futurists, 
those  who  maintain  that  the  roll  of  prophecies  is  com- 
pleted in  past  history  or  in  the  apostolical  age  ;  those 
who  look  forward  to  a  long  series  of  events  which  are 
yet  to  come  (^et?  a<^ave^  top  /jlv6ov  avevejKoop  ovk  ep^et 
eXey^ov')^  —  may  alike  claim  the  authority  of  the  Book 
of  Daniel  or  the  Revelation.  Apparent  coincidences 
will  always  be  discovered  by  those  who  want  to  find 
them.  Where  there  is  no  critical  interpretation  of 
Scripture,  there  will  be  a  mystical  or  rhetorical  one. 
If  words  have  more  than  one  meaning,  they  may  have 
any  meaning.  Instead  of  being  a  rule  of  life  or  faith. 
Scripture  becomes  the  expression  of  the  ever-changing 
aspect  of  religious  opinions.  The  unchangeable  word 
of  God,  in  the  name  of  which  we  repose,  is  changed  by 
each  age  and  each  generation  in  accordance  with  its 
passing  fancy.  The  book  in  which  we  believe  all  re- 
ligious truth  to  be  .contained  is  the  most  uncertain  of 
18 


410  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

all  books,  because  interpreted  by  arbitrary  and  uncer- 
tain methods. 

§  3. 

It  is  probable  that  some  of  the  preceding  statements 
may  be  censured  as  a  wanton  exposure  of  the  difficul- 
ties of  Scripture.  It  will  be  said  that  such  inquiries 
are  for  the  few,  while  the  printed  page  lies  open  to 
the  many ;  and  that  the  obtrusion  of  them  may  offend 
some  weaker  brother,  some  half-educated  or  prejudiced 
soul,  "  for  whom,"  nevertheless,  in  the  touching  lan- 
guage of  St.  Paul,  "  Christ  died."  A  confusion  of  the 
heart  and  head  may  lead  sensitive  minds  into  a  deser- 
tion of  the  principles  of  the  Christian  life,  which  are 
their  own  witness,  because  they  are  in  doubt  about 
facts  which  are  really  external  to  them.  Great  evil 
to  character  may  sometimes  ensue  from  such  causes. 
"  No  man  can  serve  two  "  opinions,  without  a  sensible 
harm  to  his  nature.  The  consciousness  of  this  respon- 
sibility should  be  always  present  to  writers  on  theology. 
But  the  responsibility  is  really  twofold  ;  for  there  is  a 
duty  to  speak  the  truth,  as  well  as  a  duty  to  withhold 
it.  The  voice  of  a  majority  of  the  clergy  throughout 
the  world  ;  the  half-sceptical,  half-conservative  in- 
stincts of  many  laymen  ;  perhaps,  also,  individual  in- 
terest, —  are  in  favor  of  the  latter  course :  while  a 
higher  expediency  pleads  that  "  honesty  is  the  best 
policy,"  and  that  truth  alone  "  makes  free."  To  this 
it  may  be  replied,  that  truth  is  not  truth  to  those 
who  are  unable  to  use  it :  no  reasonable  man  would 
attempt  to  lay  before  the  illiterate  such  a  question 
as  that  concerning  the  origin  of  the  Gospels.  And 
yet  it  may  be  rejoined  once  more,  the  healthy  tone 
of  religion  among  the  poor  depends  upon  freedom 
of  thought   and   inquiry   among   the   educated.      In 


ON   THE  INTEEPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  411 

this  conflict  of  reasons,  individual  judgment  must  at 
last  decide.  That  there  has  been  no  rude  or  improper 
unveiling  of  the  difficulties  of  Scripture  in  the  preced- 
ing pages  is  thought  to  be  shown  by  the  following  con- 
siderations :  — 

First,  That  the  difficulties  referred  to  are  very  well 
known  :  they  force  themselves  on  the  attention,  not 
only  of  the  student,  but  of  every  intelligent  reader 
of  the  New  Testament,  whether  in  Greek  or  English. 
The  treatment  of  such  difficulties  in  theological  works 
is  no  measure  of  public  opinion  respecting  them. 
Thoughtful  persons,  whose  minds  have  turned  towards 
theology,  are  continually  discovering  that  the  critical 
observations  which  they  make  themselves  have  been 
made  also  by  others,  apparently  without  concert.  The 
truth  is,  that  they  have  been  led  to  them  by  the  same 
causes  ;  and  these,  again,  lie  deep  in  the  tendencies  of 
education  and  literature  in  the  present  age.  But  no 
one  is  willing  to  break  through  the  reticence  which 
is  observed  on  these  subjects :  hence  a  sort  of  smoul- 
dering scepticism.  It  is  probable  that  the  distrust  is 
greatest  at  the  time  when  the  greatest  efforts  are 
made  to  conceal  it.  Doubt  comes  in  at  the  window, 
when  Inquiry  is  denied  at  the  door.  The  thoughts  of 
able  and  highly-educated  young  men  almost  always 
stray  towards  the  first  principles  of  things :  it  is  a 
great  injury  to  them,  and  tends  to  raise  in  their 
minds  a  sort  of  incurable  suspicion,  to  find  that  there 
is  one  book,  of  the  fruit  of  the  knowledge  of  which 
they  are  forbidden  freely  to  taste  ;  that  is,  the  Bible. 
The  same  spirit  renders  the  Christian  minister  almost 
powerless  in  the  hands  of  his  opponents.  He  can 
give  no  true  answer  to  the  mechanic  or  artisan  who 
has  either  discovered  by  his  mother-wit,  or  who  retails 


412  ON  THE  INTERPEETATION   OF  SCRIPTURE. 

at  second-hand,  the  objections  of  critics  ;  for  he  is  un- 
able to  look  at  things  as  they  truly  are. 

Secondly,  As  the  time  has  come  when  it  is  no  longer 
possible  to  ignore  the  results  of  criticism,  it  is  of  im- 
portance that  Christianity  should  be  seen  to  be  in  har- 
mony with  them.  That  objections  to  some  received 
views  should  be  valid,  and  yet  that  they  should  be 
always  held  up  as  the  objections  of  infidels,  is  a  mis- 
chief to  the  Christian  cause.  It  is  a  mischief,  that 
critical  ol»servations,  which  any  intelligent  man  can 
make  for  himself,  should  be  ascribed  to  atheism  or 
unbelief.  It  would  be  a  strange  and  almost  incredible 
thing,  that  the  gospel,  which  at  first  made  war  only 
on  the  vices  of  mankind,  should  now  be  opposed  to 
one  of  the  highest  and  rarest  of  human  virtues,  —  the 
love  of  truth ;  and  that,  in  the  present  day,  the  great 
object  of  Christianity  should  be,  not  to  change  the 
lives  of  men,  but  to  prevent  them  from  changing  their 
opinions  :  that  would  be  a  singular  inversion  of  the 
purposes  for  which  Christ  came  into  the  world. 
The  Christian  religion  is  in  a  false  position,  when 
all  the  tendencies  of  knowledge  are  opposed  to  it : 
such  a  position  cannot  be  long  maintained,  or  can 
only  end  in  the  withdrawal  of  the  educated  classes 
from  the  influences  of  religion.  It  is  a  grave  con- 
sideration, whether  we  ourselves  may  not  be  in  an 
earlier  stage  of  the  same  religious  dissolution  which 
seems  to  have  gone  further  in  Italy  and  France. 
The  reason  for  thinking  so  is  not  to  be  sought  in 
the  external  circumstances  of  our  own  or  any  other 
religious  communion,  but  in  the  progress  of  ideas 
with  which  Christian  teachers  seem  to  be  ill  at  ease. 
Time  was  when  the  gospel  was  before  the  age ; 
when  it  breathed  a  new  life  into  a  decaying  world; 


ON  THE  INTERPEETATIOX  OF   SCEIPTURE.  413 

when  the  difficulties  of  Christianity  were  difficulties 
of  the  heart  only,  and  the  highest  minds  found  in 
its  truths,  not  only  the  rule  of  their  lives,  but  a  well- 
spring  of  intellectual  delight.  Is  it  to  be  held  a 
thing  impossible,  that  the  Christian  religion,  instead  of 
shrinking  into  itself,  may  again  embrace  the  thoughts 
of  men  upon  the  earth  ?  Or  is  it  true,  that,  since  the 
Reformation,  "  all  intellect  has  gone  the  other  way  ;  " 
and  that,  in  Protestant  countries,  reconciliation  is  as 
hopeless  as  Protestants  commonly  believe  to  be  the 
case  in  Catholic  ? 

Those  who  hold  the  possibility  of  such  a  reconcile- 
ment or  restoration  of  belief  are  anxious  to  disengage 
Christianity  from  all  suspicion  of  disguise  or  unfairness. 
They  wish  to  preserve  the  historical  use  of  Scripture, 
as  the  continuous  witness,  in  all  ages,  of  the  higher 
things  in  the  heart  of  man  ;  as  the  inspired  source 
of  truth,  and  the  way  to  the  better  life.  They  are 
willing  to  take  away  some  of  the  external  supports, 
because  they  are  not  needed,  and  do  harm ;  also  be- 
cause they  interfere  with  the  meaning.  They  have 
a  faith,  not  that,  after  a  period  of  transition,  all  things 
will  remain  just  as  they  were  before,  but  that  they  will 
all  come  round  again  to  the  use  of  man  and  to  the 
glory  of  God.  When  interpreted  like  any  other  book, 
by  the  same  rules  of  evidence  and  the  same  canons 
of  criticism,  the  Bible  will  still  remain  unlike  any 
other  book:  its  beauty  will  be  freshly  seen, 'as  of  a 
picture  which  is  restored  after  many  ages  to  its 
original  state  ;  it  will  create  a  new  interest,  and  make 
for  itself  a  new  kind  of  authority,  by  the  life  which  is 
in  it.  It  will  be  a  spirit,  and  not  a  letter,  as  it  was  in 
the  beginning ;  having  an  influence  like  that  of  the 
spoken  word,  or -the  book  newly  found.     The  purer 


414  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE. 

the  liglit  in  the  human  heart,  the  more  it  will  have 
an  expression  of  itself  in  the  mind  of  Christ :  the 
greater  the  knowledge  of  the  development  of  man, 
the  truer  will  be  the  insight  gained  into  the  "  in- 
creasing purpose  "  of  revelation.  In  which,  also,  the 
individual  soul  has  a  practical  part;  finding  a  sym- 
pathy with  its  own  imperfect  feelings,  in  the  broken 
utterance  of  the  psalmist  or  the  prophet,  as  well  as 
in  the  fulness  of  Christ.  The  harmony  between 
Scripture  and  the  life  of  man,  in  all  its  stages,  may  be 
far  greater  than  appears  at  present.  No  one  can  form 
any  notion  from  what  we  see  around  us,  of  the  power 
which  Christianity  might  have  if  it  were  at  one  with 
the  conscience  of  man,  and  not  at  variance  with  his 
intellectual  convictions.  There,  a  world  weary  of  the 
heat  and  dust  of  controversy,  —  of  speculations  about 
God  and  man  ;  weary,  too,  of  the  rapidity  of  its  own 
motion,  —  would  return  home,  and  find  rest. 

But  for  the  faith  that  the  gospel  might  win  again 
the  minds  of  intellectual  men,  it  would  be  better  to 
leave  religion  to  itself,  instead  of  attempting  to  draw 
them  together.  Other  walks  in  literature  have  peace 
and  pleasure  and  profit;  the  path  of  the  critical 
interpreter  of  Scripture  is  almost  always  a  thorny  one 
in  England.  It  is  not  worth  while  for  any  one  to 
enter  upon  it  who  is  not  supported  by  a  sense  that 
he  has  a  Christian  and  moral  object ;  for,  although  an 
interpreter  of  Scripture  in  modern  times  will  hardly 
say  with  the  emphasis  of  the  apostle,  "  Woe  is  me  if  I 
speak  not  the  truth,  witliout  regard  to  consequences  !  " 
yet  he,  too,  may  feel  it  a  matter  of  duty  not  to  conceal 
the  things  which  he  knows.  He  does  not  hide  the 
discrepancies  of  Scripture,  because  the  acknowledg- 
ment of  them  is   the   first   step  towards  agreement 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE.  415 

among  interpreters.  He  would  restore  the  original 
meaning,  because  "  seven  other  "  meanings  take  the 
place  of  it :  the  hook  is  made  the  sport  of  opinion, 
and  the  instrument  of  perversion  of  life.  He  would 
take  the  excuses  of  the  head  out  of  tlie  way  of  the 
heart.  There  is  hope,  too,  that,  by  drawing  Christians 
together  on  the  ground  of  Scripture,  he  may  also 
draw  them  nearer  to  one  another.  He  is  not  afraid 
that  inquiries,  which  have  for  their  object  the  truth, 
can  ever  be  displeasing  to  the  God  of  truth ;  or  that 
the  word  of  God  is  in  any  such  sense  a  word  as  to 
be  hurt  by  investigations  into  its  human  origin  and 
conception. 

It  may  be  thought  another  ungracious  aspect  of 
the  preceding  remarks,  that  they  cast  a  slight  upon 
the  interpreters  of  Scripture  in  former  ages.  The 
early  Fathers,  the  Roman  Catholic  mystical  writers, 
the  Swiss  and  German  Eeformers,  the  Nonconformist 
divines,  have  qualities  for  which  we  look  in  vain  among 
ourselves :  they  throw  an  intensity  of  light  upon  the 
page  of  Scripture,  which  we  nowhere  find  in  modern 
commentaries  ;  but  it  is  not  the  light  of  interpretation. 
They  have  a  faith  which  seems,  indeed,  to  have  grown 
dim  now-a-days  ;  but  that  faith  is  not  drawn  from  the 
study  of  Scripture  :  it  is  the  element  in  which  their 
own  mind  moves,  which  overflows  on  the  meaning  of 
the  text.  The  words  of  Scripture  suggest  to  them 
their  own  thoughts  or  feelings.  They  are  preachers, 
or,  in  the  New  Testament  sense  of  the  word,  prophets, 
rather  than  interpreters.  There  is  nothing  in  such  a 
view  derogatory  to  the  saints  and  doctors  of  former 
ages.  That  Aquinas  or  Bernard  did  not  shake  them- 
selves free  from  the  mystical  method  of  the  Patristic 
times,  or  the  scholastic  one  which  was  more  peculiarly 


416  ON  THE  miERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

their  own  ;  that  Luther  and  Calvin  read  the  Scriptures 
in  connection  with  the  ideas  which  were  kindling  in 
the  mind  of  their  age,  and  the  events  which  were 
passing  before  their  eyes,  —  these  and  similar  remarks 
are  not  to  be  construed  as  depreciatory  of  the  genius 
or  learning  of  famous  men  of  old  :  they  relate  only  to 
their  interpretation  of  Scripture,  in  which  it  is  no 
slight  upon  them  to  maintain  that  they  were  not  before 
their  day. 

What  remains  may  be  comprised  in  a  few  precepts, 
or  rather  is  the  expansion  of  a  single  one.  Interpret 
the  Scripture  like  any  other  hook.  There  are  many 
respects  in  which  Scripture  is  unlike  any  other  book  : 
these  will  appear  in  the  results  of  such  an  interpreta- 
tion. The  first  step  is  to  know  the  meaning  ;  and  this 
can  only  be  done  in  the  same  careful  and  impartial 
way  that  we  ascertain  the  meaning  of  Sophocles  or 
of  Plato.  The  subordinate  principles  which  flow  out 
of  this  general  one  will  also  be  gathered  from  the 
observation  of  Scripture.  No  other  science  of  Her- 
meneutics  is  possible  but  an  inductive  one  ;  that  is  to 
say,  one  based  on  the  language  and  thoughts  and 
narrations  of  the  sacred  writers.  And  it  would  be 
well  to  carry  the  theory  of  interpretation  no  further 
than  in  the  case  of  other  works.  Excessive  system 
tends  to  create  an  impression  that  the  meaning  of 
Scripture  is  out  of  our  reach,  or  is  to  be  attained  in 
some  other  way  than  by  the  exercise  of  manly  sense 
and  industry.  Who  would  write  a  bulky  treatise 
about  the  method  to  be  pursued  in  interpreting  Plato 
or  Sophocles  ?  Let  us  not  set  out  on  our  journey  so 
heavily  equipped  that  there  is  little  chance  of  our 
arriving  at  the  end  of  it.  The  method  creates  itself 
as  we  go  on,  beginning  only  with  a  few  reflections 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE.  417 

directed  against  plain  errors.  Such  reflections  are 
the  rules  of  common  sense,  which  we  acknowledge 
with  respect  to  other  works  written  in  dead  lan- 
guages. Without  pretending  to  novelty,  they  may 
help  us  to  "  return  lo  nature  "  m  the  study  of  the 
sacred  writings. 

First,  It  may  be  laid  down  that  Scripture  lias  one 
meaning,  —  the  meaning  which  it  had  to  the  mind  of 
the  prophet  or  evangelist  who  first  uttered  or  wrote,  to 
the  hearers  or  readers  who  first  received  it.  Another 
view  may  be  easier  or  more  familiar  to  us,  seeming 
to  receive  a  light  and  interest  from  the  circumstances 
of  our  own  age.  But  such  accommodation  of  the 
text  must  be  laid  aside  by  the  interpreter,  whose 
business  is  to  place  himself  as  nearly  as  possible  in 
the  position  of  the  sacred  writer.  That  is  no  easy 
task,  —  to  call  up  the  inner  and  outer  life  of  the  con- 
temporaries of  our  Saviour ;  to  follow  the  abrupt  and 
involved  utterance  of  St.  Paul  or  one  of  the  old 
prophets  ;  to  trace  the  meaning  of  words  when  lan- 
guage first  became  Christian.  He  will  often  have  to 
choose  the  more  difficult  interpretation  (Gal.  ii.  20  ; 
Rom.  iii.  15,  <fec.),  and  to  refuse  one  more  in  agree- 
ment with  received  opinions,  because  the  latter  is  less 
true  to  the  style  and  time  of  the  author.  He  may 
incur  the  charge  of  singularity,  or  confusion  of  ideas, 
or  ignorance  of  Greek,  from  a  misunderstanding  of  the 
peculiarity  of  the  subject  in  the  person  who  makes  the 
charge.  For  if  it  be  said  that  the  translation  of  some 
Greek  words  is  contrary  to  the  usages  of  grammar 
(Gal.  iv.  13),  that  is  not  in  every  instance  to  be  de- 
nied :  the  point  is,  whether  the  usages  of  grammar  are 
always  observed.  Or  if  it  be  objected  to  some  mter- 
pretation  of  Scripture  that  it  is  difficult  and  perplexing, 
18*  AA 


418  ON   THE  INTERPRETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE. 

the  answer  is,  "That  may  very  well  be  :  it  is  the  fact," 
arising  out  of  differences  in  the  modes  of  thought  of 
other  times,  or  irregularities  in  the  use  of  language, 
which  no  art  of  the  interpreter  can  evade.  One  con- 
sideration should  be  borne  in  mind,  that  the  Bible  is 
the  only  book  in  the  world,  written  in  different  styles 
and  at  many  different  times,  which  is  in  the  hands  of 
persons  of  all  degrees  of  knowledge  and  education. 
The  benefit  of  this  outweighs  the  evil :  yet  the  evil 
should  be  admitted ;  namely,  that  it  leads  to  a  hasty 
and  partial  interpretation  of  Scripture,  which  often 
obscures  the  true  one.  A  sort  of  conflict  arises  be- 
tween scientific  criticism  and  popular  opinion.  The 
indiscriminate  use  of  Scripture  has  a  further  tendency 
to  maintain  erroneous  readings  or  translations  :  some 
which  are  allowed  to  be  such  by  scholars  have  been 
stereotyped  in  the  mind  of  the  English  reader  ;  and  it 
becomes  almost  a  political  question,  how  far  we  can 
venture  to  disturb  them. 

There  are  difficulties  of  another  kind  in  many  parts 
of  Scripture,  the  depth  and  inwardness  of  which 
require  a  measure  of  the  same  qualities  in  the  inter- 
preter himself.  There  are  notes  struck  in  places, 
which,  like  some  discoveries  of  science,  have  sounded 
before  their  time,  and,  only  after  many  days,  have  been 
caught  up,  and  found  a  response  on  the  earth.  There 
are  germs  of  truth,  which,  after  thousands  of  years, 
have  never  yet  taken  root  in  the  world.  There  are 
lessons  in  the  prophets,  which,  however  simple,  man- 
kind have  not  yet  learned  even  in  theory,  and  which 
the  complexity  of  society  rather  tends  to  hide  ;  aspects 
of  human  life,  in  Job  and  Ecclesiastes,  which  have  a 
truth  of  desolation  about  them  which  we  faintly  real- 
ize  in   ordinary  circumstances.     It  is,  perhaps,  the 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF  SCRIPTURE.  419 

greatest  difficulty  of  all  to  enter  into  the  meaning  of 
the  words  of  Christ,  —  so  gentle,  so  human,  so  divine  ; 
neither  adding  to  them,  nor  marring  their  simplicity. 
The  attempt  to  illustrate  or  draw  them  out  in  detail, 
even  to  guard  against  their  abuse,  is  apt  to  disturb 
the  balance  of  truth.  The  interpreter  needs  nothing 
short  of  "  fashioning "  in  himself  the  image  of  the 
mind  of  Christ.  He  has  to  be  born  again  into  a  new 
spiritual  or  intellectual  world,  from  which  the  thoughts 
of  this  world  are  shut  out.  It  is  one  of  the  highest 
tasks  on  which  the  labor  of  a  life  can  be  spent,  to 
bring  the  words  of  Christ  a  little  nearer  the  heart  of 
man. 

But,  while  acknowledging  this  inexhaustible  or  in- 
finite character  of  the  sacred  writings,  it  does  not, 
therefore,  follow  that  we  are  willing  to  admit  of  hid- 
den or  mysterious  meanings  in  them  (in  the  same  way, 
we  recognize  the  wonders  and  complexity  of  the  laws 
of  nature  to  be  far  beyond  what  eye  has  seen  or  knowl- 
edge reached ;  yet  it  is  not  therefore  to  be  supposed 
that  we  acknowledge  the  existence  of  some  other 
laws,  different  in  kind  from  those  we  know,  which  are 
incapable  of  philosophical  analysis).  In  like  manner, 
we  have  no  reason  to  attribute  to  the  prophet  or  evan- 
gelist any  second  or  hidden  sense  different  from  that 
which  appears  on  the  surface.  All  that  the  prophet 
meant  may  not  have  been  consciously  present  to  his 
mind :  there  were  depths  which  to  himself  also  were 
but  half  revealed.  He  beheld  the  fortunes  of  Israel 
passing  into  the  heavens  :  the  temporal  kingdom  was 
fading  into  an  eternal  one.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed 
that  what  he  saw  at  a  distance  only  was  clearly  defined 
to  him,  or  that  the  universal  truth  which  was  appear- 
ing and  reappea:!;ing  in  the  history  of  the  surrounding 


420  ON   THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

world  took  a  purely  spiritual  or  abstract  form  in  his 
mind.  There  is  a  sense  in  which  we  may  still  say, 
with  Lord  Bacon,  that  the  words  of  prophecy  are  to 
be  interpreted  as  the  words  of  One  "  with  whom  a 
thousand  years  are  as  one  day,  and  one  day  as  a  thou- 
sand years."  But  that  is  no  reason  for  turning  days 
into  years  ;  or  for  interpreting  the  things  "  that  must 
shortly  come  to  pass,"  in  the  Book  of  Revelation,  as 
the  events  of  modern  history ;  or  for  separating  the 
day  of  judgment  from  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
in  the  Gospels.  The  double  meaning  which  is  given 
to  our  Saviour's  discourse  respecting  the  last  things 
is  not  that  "  form  of  eternity"  of  which  Lord  Bacon 
speaks  :  it  resembles  rather  the  doubling  of  an  object 
when  seen  through  glasses  placed  at  different  angles. 
It  is  true,  also,  that  there  are  types  in  Scripture  which 
were  regarded  as  such  by  the  Jews  themselves ;  as, 
for  example,  the  scapegoat,  or  the  paschal  lamb.  But 
that  is  no  proof  of  all  outward  ceremonies  being  types, 
when  Scripture  is  silent :  (if  we  assume  the  New  Tes- 
tament as  a  tradition  running  parallel  with  the  Old, 
may  not  the  Roman  Catholic  assume  with  equal  reason 
a  tradition  running  parallel  with  the  New  ?)  Pro- 
phetic symbols,  again,  have  often  the  same  meaning  in 
different  places  (e.  g-.  the  four  beasts,  or  living  crea- 
tures ;  the  colors,  white  or  red)  :  the  reason  is,  that 
this  meaning  is  derived  from  some  natural  association 
(as  of  fruitfulncss,  purity,  or  the  like)  ;  or,  again,  they 
are  borrowed  in  some  of  the  later  prophecies  from  ear- 
lier ones.  We  are  not,  therefore,  justified  in  suppos- 
ing any  hidden  connection  in  the  prophecies  where 
they  occur.  Neither  is  there  any  ground  for  assuming 
design  of  any  other  kind  in  Scripture  any  more  than 
in  Plato  or  Homer.     Wherever  there  is  beauty  and 


ON  THE  INTERPEETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  421 

order,  there  is  design ;  but  there  is  no  proof  of  any 
artificial  design,  such  as  is  often  traced  by  the  Fathers, 
in  the  relation  of  the  several  parts  of  a  book,  or  of 
the  several  books  to  each  other.  That  is  one  of  those 
mischievous  notions  which  enables  us,  under  the  dis- 
guise of  reverence,  to  make  Scripture  mean  what  we 
please.  Nothing  that  can  be  said  of  the  greatness  or 
sublimity  or  truth  or  depth  or  tenderness  of  many 
passages  is  too  much.  But  that  greatness  is  of  a 
simple  kind :  it  is  not  increased  by  double  senses,  or 
systems  of  types,  or  elaborate  structure,  or  design. 
If  every  sentence  was  a  mystery,  every  word  a  riddle, 
every  letter  a  symbol,  that  would  not  make  the  Scrip- 
tures more  worthy  of  a  divine  author :  it  is  a  Heathen- 
ish or  Rabbinical  fancy  which  reads  them  in  this  way. 
Such  complexity  would  not  place  them  above,  but 
below,  human  compositions  in  general ;  for  it  would 
deprive  them  of  the  ordinary  intelligibleness  of  human 
language.  It  is  not  for  a  Christian  theologian  to  say 
that  words  were  given  to  mankind  to  conceal  their 
thoughts  ;  neither  was  revelation  given  them  to  con- 
ceal the  divine. 

The  second  rule  is  an  application  of  the  general 
principle :  "  Interpret  Scripture  from  itself,"  as  in 
other  respects,  like  any  other  book  written  in  an  age 
and  country  of  which  little  or  no  other  literature  sur- 
vives, and  about  which  we  know  almost  nothing,  ex- 
cept what  is  derived  from  its  pages.  Not  that  all  the 
parts  of  Scripture  are  to  be  regarded  as  an  indistin- 
guishable mass.  The  Old  Testament  is  not  to  be 
identified  with  the  New,  nor  the  Law  with  the  Proph- 
ets, nor  the  Gospels  with  the  Epistles,  nor  the 
Epistles  of  St.  Paul  to  be  violently  harmonized  with 
the  Epistle  of  St.  James.     Each  writer,  each  succes- 


422  ON  THE  INTERPKETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE. 

sive  age,  has  characteristics  of  its  own,  as  strongly 
marked,  or  more  strongly,  than  those  which  are  found 
m  the  authors  or  periods  of  classical  literature.  These 
differences  are  not  to  be  lost  in  the  idea  of  a  Spirit 
from  whom  they  proceed,  or  by  which  they  were 
overruled  ;  and,  therefore,  illustration  of  one  part  of 
Scripture  by  another  should  be  confined  to  writings 
of  the  same  age  and  the  same  authors,  except  where 
the  writings  of  different  ages  or  persons  offer  obvious 
similarities.  It  may  be  said  further,  that  illustration 
should  be  chiefly  derived,  not  only  from  the  same  au- 
thor, but  from  the  same  writing,  or  from  one  of  the 
same  period  of  his  life.  For  example,  the  comparison 
of  St.  John  and  the  "  synoptic  "  Gospels,  or  of  the 
Gospel  of  St.  John  with  the  Revelation  of  St.  Jolm, 
will  tend  rather  to  confuse  than  to  elucidate  the  mean- 
ing of  either  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  compari- 
son of  the  prophets  with  one  another  and  with  the 
Psalms  offers  many  valuable  helps  and  lights  to  the 
interpreter.  Again  :  the  connection  between  the  Epis- 
tles written  by  the  Apostle  St.  Paul  about  the  same 
time  (e.g.  Romans,  1  and  2  Corinthians,  Galatians, — 
Colossians,  Philippians,  Ephesians,  —  compared  with 
Romans,  Colossians,  —  Ephesians,  Galatians,  &c.)  is 
far  closer  than  of  Epistles  which  are  separated  by  an 
interval  of  only  a  few  years. 

But  supposing  all  this  to  be  understood,  and  that 
by  the  interpretation  of  Scripture  from  itself  is  meant 
a  real  interpretation  of  like  by  like  :  it  may  be  asked, 
What  is  that  we  gain  from  a  minute  comparison  of 
a  particular  author  or  writing  ?  The  indiscriminate 
use  of  parallel  passages,  taken  from  one  end  of  Scrip- 
ture and  applied  to  the  other  (except  so  far  as  earlier 
compositions  may  have  afforded  the  material  or  the 


ON  THE  INTEEPEETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  423 

form  of  later  ones),  is  useless  and  uncritical.  The 
uneducated  or  imperfectly  educated  person  who  looks 
out  the  marginal  references  of  the  English  Bible, 
imagining  himself  in  this  way  to  gain  a  clearer  insight 
into  the  divine  meaning,  is  really  following  the  relig- 
ious associations  of  his  own  mind.  Even  the  critical 
use  of  parallel  passages  is  not  without  danger.  For 
are  we  to  conclude  that  an  author  meant  in  one  place 
what  he  says  in  another  ?  Shall  we  venture  to  mend 
a  corrupt  phrase  on  the  model  of  some  other  phrase, 
which  memory,  prevailing  over  judgment,  calls  up, 
and  thrusts  into  the  text  ?  It  is  this  fallacy  which  has 
filled  the  pages  of  classical  writers  with  useless  and 
unfounded  emendations. 

The  meaning  of  the  canon,  "  Non  nisi  ex  Scriptura 
Scripturam  potes  interpretari,"  is  only  this,  "  Tliat  we 
cannot  understand  Scripture  without  becoming  familiar 
with  it."  Scripture  is  a  world  by  itself,  from  which 
we  must  exclude  foreign  influences,  whether  theolog- 
ical or  classical.  To  get  inside  that  world  is  an  effort 
of  thought  and  imagination,  requiring  the  sense  of  a 
poet  as  well  as  a  critic,  —  demanding,  much  more  than 
learning,  a  degree  of  original  power,  and  intensity  of 
mind.  Any  one,  who,  instead  of  burying  himself  in 
the  pages  of  the  commentators,  would  learn  the  sacred 
writings  by  heart,  and  paraphrase  tliem  in  English, 
will  probably  make  a  nearer  approach  to  their  true 
meaning  than  he  would  gather  from  any  commentary. 
The  intelligent  mind  will  ask  its  own  questions,  and 
find,  for  the  most  part,  its  own  answers.  The  true 
use  of  interpretation  is  to  get  rid  of  interpretation, 
and  leave  us  alone  in  company  with  the  author.  When 
the  meaning  of  Greek  words  is  once  known,  the 
young  student  has  almost  all  the  real  materials  which 


424  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

are  possessed  bj  the  greatest  biblical  scholar,  in  the 
book  itself.  For  almost  our  whole  knowledge  of  the 
history  of  the  Jews  is  derived  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  the  Apocryphal  books,  and  almost  our 
whole  knowledge  of  the  life  of  Christ  and  of  the  apos- 
tolical age  is  derived  from  the  New :  whatever  is 
added  to  them  is  either  conjecture,  or  very  slight 
topographical  or  chronological  illustration.  For  this 
reason,  the  rule  given  above,  which  is  applicable  to 
all  books,  is  applicable  to  the  New  Testament  more 
than  any  other. 

Yet,  in  this  consideration  of  the  separate  books  of 
Scripture,  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  they  have  also 
a  sort  of  continuity.  We  make  a  separate  study  of 
the  subject,  the  mode  of  thought,  in  some  degree  also 
of  the  language,  of  each  book  ;  and  at  length  the 
idea  arises  in  our  minds  of  a  common  literature,  a  per- 
vading life,  an  overruling  law.  It  may  be  compared 
to  the  effect  of  some  natural  scene  in  which  we  sud- 
denly perceive  a  harmony  or  picture,  or  to  the  imper- 
fect appearance  of  design  which  suggests  itself  in 
looking  at  the  surface  of  the  globe.  That  Is  to  say, 
there  is  nothing  miraculous  or  artificial  in  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  books  of  Scripture :  it  is  the  result,  not 
the  design,  which  appears  in  them,  when  bound  in  the 
same  volume.  Or,  if  we  like  -so  to  say,  there  is  design, 
but  a  natural  design  which  is  revealed  to  after-ages. 
Such  continuity  or  design  is  best  expressed  under 
some  notion  of  progress  or  growth,  not  regular,  how- 
ever, but  with  broken  and  imperfect  stages,  which  tlie 
want  of  knowledge  prevents  our  minutely  defining. 
The  great  truth  of  the  Unity  of  God  was  there  from 
the  first :  slowly  as  the  morning  broke  in  the  heavens, 
like  some  central  light,  it  filled,  and  afterwards  dis- 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  425 

persed,  the  mists  of  human  passion  in  which  it  was 
itself  enveloped.  A  change  passes  over  the  Jewish 
religion  from  fear  to  love,  from  power  to  wisdom, 
from  the  justice  of  God  to  the  mercy  of  God,  from 
the  nation  to  the  individual,  from  this  world  to  an- 
other ;  from  the  visitation  of  the  sins  of  the  fathers 
upon  the  children,  to  "  every  soul  shall  bear  its  own 
iniquity ; "  from  the  fire,  the  earthquake,  and  the  storm, 
to  the  still  small  voice.  There  never  was  a  time,  after 
the  deliverance  from  Egypt,  in  which  the  Jewish  people 
did  not  bear  a  kind  of  witness  against  the  cruelty  and 
licentiousness  of  the  surrounding  tribes.  In  the  de- 
cline of  the  monarchy,  as  the  kingdom  itself  was  sink- 
ing under  foreign  conquerors,  whether  springing  from 
contact  with  the  outer  world  or  from  some  reaction 
within,  the  undergrowth  of  morality  gathers  strength  : 
first,  in  the  anticipation  of  prophecy  ;  secondly,  like  a 
green  plant  in  the  hollow  rind  of  Pharisaism,  —  and 
individuals  pray  and  commune  with  God  each  one  for 
himself.  At  length,  the  tree  of  life  blossoms :  the 
faith  in  immortality  which  had  hitherto  slumbered  in 
the  heart  of  man,  intimated  only  in  doubtful  words 
(2  Sam.  xii.  23  ;  Ps.  xvii.  15),  or  beaming  for  an 
instant  in  dark  places  (Job  xix.  25),  has  become  the 
prevailing  belief. 

There  is  an  interval  in  the  Jewish  annals  which  we 
often  exclude  from  our  thoughts,  because  it  has  no 
record  in  the  canonical  writings,  —  extending  over 
about  four  hundred  years,  from  the  last  of  the  proph- 
ets of  the  Old  Testament  to  the  forerunner  of  Christ 
in  the  New.  This  interval,  about  which  we  know  so 
little,  which  is  regarded  by  many  as  a  portion  of  sec- 
ular rather  than  of  sacred  history,  was  nevertheless  as 
fruitful  in   religious   changes   as   any  similar  period 


426  ON   THE   INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

which  preceded.  The  establishment  of  the  Jewish 
sects,  and  the  wars  of  the  Maccabees,  probably  exer- 
cised as  great  an  influence  on  Judaism  as  the  captivity 
itself.  A  third  influence  was  that  of  the  Alexandrian 
literature,  which  was  attracting  the  Jewish  intellect, 
at  the  same  time  that  the  Galilean  zealot  was  tearino* 
the  nation  in  pieces  with  the  doctrine  that  it  was  law- 
ful to  call  "  no  man  master  but  God."  In  contrast 
with  that  wild  fanaticism  as  well  as  with  the  proud- 
Pharisee,  came  One  most  unlike  all  that  had  been, 
before,  as  the  kings  or  rulers  of  mankind.  In  an  age 
which  was  the  victim  of  its  own  passions,  the  creature 
of  its  own  circumstances,  the  slave  of  its  own  degen- 
erate religion,  our  Saviour  taught  a  lesson  absolutely 
free  from  all  the  influences  of  a  surrounding  world. 
He  made  the  last  perfect  revelation  of  God  to  man, — 
a  revelation  not  indeed  immediately  applicable  to  the 
state  of  society  or  the  world,  but,  in  its  truth  and 
purity,  inexhaustible  by  the  after  generations  of  men ; 
and,  of  the  first  application  of  the  truth  which  he 
taught  as  a  counsel  of  perfection  to  the  actual  cir- 
cumstances of  mankind,  we  have  the  example  in  the 
Epistles. 

Such  a  general  conception  of  growth  or  develop- 
ment in  Scripture,  beginning  with  the  truth  of  the 
Unity  of  God  in  the  earliest  books  and  ending  with 
the  perfection  of  Christ,  naturally  springs  up  in  oar 
minds  in  the  perusal  of  the  sacred  writings.  It  is  a 
notion  of  value  to  the  interpreter ;  for  it  enables  him 
at  the  same  time  to  grasp  the  whole,  and  distinguish 
the  parts.  It  saves  him  from  the  necessity  of  main- 
taining that  the  Old  Testament  is  one  and  the  same 
everywhere  ;  that  the  books  of  Moses  contain  truths 
or  precepts,  such  as  the  duty  of  prayer,  or  the  faith  in 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  427 

immortality,  or  the  spiritual  interpretation  of  sacrifice, 
which  no  one  has  ever  seen  there.  It  leaves  him 
room  enough  to  admit  all  the  facts  of  the  case.  No 
longer  is  he  required  to  defend  or  to  explain  away 
David's  imprecations  against  his  enemies,  or  his  in- 
junctions to  Solomon,  any  more  than  his  sin  in  the 
matter  of  Uriah.  Nor  is  he  hampered  with  a  theory 
of  accommodation.  Still  the  sense  of  "  the  increasing 
purpose  which  through  the  ages  ran  "  is  present  to 
him,  nowhere  else  continuously  discernible  or  ending 
in  a  divine  perfection.  Nowhere  else  is  there  found 
the  same  interpenetration  of  the  political  and  religious 
element :  a  whole  nation,  "  though  never  good  for 
much  at  any  time,"  possessed  witli  the  conviction  that 
it  was  living  in  the  face  of  God ;  in  whom  the  Sun 
of  righteousness  shone  iipon  the  corruption  of  an 
Eastern  nature,  —  the  "  fewest  of  all  people,"  yet  bear- 
ing the  greatest  part  in  the  education  of  the  world. 
Nowhere  else  among  the  teachers  and  benefactors  of 
mankind  is  there  any  form  like  His,  in  whom  the  de- 
sire of  the  nation  is  fulfilled  ;  and  "  not  of  that  nation 
only,"  but  of  all  mankind,  whom  he  restores  to  his 
Father  and  their  Father,  to  his  God  and  their  God. 

Such  a  growth  or  development  may  be  regarded  as 
a  kind  of  progress  from  childhood  to  manhood.  In 
the  child  there  is  an  anticipation  of  truth ;  his  reason 
is  latent  in  the  form  of  feeling ;  many  words  are  used 
by  him  which  he  imperfectly  understands ;  he  is  led 
by  temporal  promises,  believing  that  to  be  good  is  to 
be  happy  always  ;  he  is  pleased  by  marvels,  and  has 
vague  terrors ;  he  is  confined  to  a  spot  of  earth,  and 
lives  in  a  sort  of  prison  of  sense,  yet  is  bursting  also 
with  a  fulness  of  childish  life  ;  he  imagines  God  to  be 
like  a  human  father,  only  greater  and  more  awful ;  he 


428  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

is  easily  impressed  with  solemn  thoughts,  but  soon 
"rises  up  to  play"  with  other  children.  It  is  observ- 
able, that  his  ideas  of  right  and  wrong  are  very  sim- 
ple, hardly  extending  to  another  life :  they  consist 
chiefly  in  obedience  to  his  parents,  whose  word  is  his 
law.  As  he  grows  older,  he  mixes  more  and  more 
with  others ;  first,  with  one  or  two  who  have  a  great 
influence  in  the  direction  of  his  mind.  At  length,  the 
world  opens  upon  him ;  another  work  of  education 
begins ;  and  he  learns  to  discern  more  truly  the 
meaning  of  things  and  his  relation  to  men  in  general. 
(You  may  complete  the  image  by  supposing  that 
there  was  a  time  in  his  early  days  when  he  was  a 
helpless  outcast  "  in  the  land  of  Egypt  and  the  house 
of  bondage.")  And,  as  he  arrives  at  manhood,  he 
reflects  on  his  former  years,  —  the  progress  of  his 
education,  the  hardships  of  his  infancy,  the  home  of 
his  youth  (the  thought  of  which  is  ineffaceable  in 
after-life)  ;  and  he  now  understands  that  all  this  was 
but  a  preparation  for  another  state  of  being,  in  which 
he  is  to  play  a  part  for  himself.  And,  once  more,  in 
age  you  may  imagine  him  like  the  patriarch  looking 
back  on  the  entire  past,  which  he  reads  anew,  per- 
ceiving that  the  events  of  life  had  a  purpose  or  result 
which  was  not  seen  at  the  time :  they  seem  to  him 
bound  "  each  to  each  by  natural  piety." 

"  Which  things  are  an  allegory,"  the  particulars  of 
which  any  one  may  interpret  for  himself;  for  the 
child  born  after  the  flesh  is  the  symbol  of  the  child 
born  after  the  Spirit.  "  The  law  was  a  schoolmaster 
to  bring  men  to  Christ,"  and  now  "we  are  imder  a 
schoolmaster"  no  longer.  The  anticipation  of  truth 
which  came  from  without  to  the  childhood  or  youth 
of  the  human  race  is  witnessed  to  within :  the  reve- 


ON   THE   INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  429 

lation  of  God  is  not  lost,  but  renewed  in  the  heart 
and  understanding  of  the  man.  Experience  has 
taught  us  the  application  of  the  lesson  in  a  wider 
sphere,  and  many  influences  have  combined  to  form 
the  "  after-life  "  of  the  world.  When,  at  the  close 
(shall  we  say  ?)  of  a  great  period  in  the  history  of 
man,  we  cast  our  eyes  back  on  the  course  of  events, 
from  the  "  angel  of  his  presence  in  the  wilderness  " 
to  the  multitude  of  peoples,  nations,  languages,  who 
are  being  drawn  together  by  His  providence  ;  from 
the  simplicity  of  the  pastoral  state  in  the  dawn  of  the 
world's  day,  to  all  the  elements  of  civilization  and 
knowledge  which  are  beginning  to  meet  and  mingle 
in  a  common  life, — we  also  understand  that  we  are  no 
longer  in  our  early  home,  to  which,  nevertheless,  we 
fondly  look  ;  and  that  the  end  is  yet  unseen,  and  the 
purposes  of  God  towards  the  human  race  only  half 
revealed.  And  to  turn  once  more  to  the  interpreter 
of  Scripture  :  he,  too,  feels  that  the  continuous  growth 
of  revelation  which  he  traces  in  the  Old  and  New 
Testament  is  a  part  of  a  larger  whole  extending  over 
the  earth,  and  reaching  to  another  world. 

§4. 
Scripture  has  an  inner  life  or  soul :  it  has  also  an 
outward  body  or  form.  That  form  is  language,  which 
imperfectly  expresses  our  common  notions,  —  much 
more  those  higher  truths  which  religion  teaches.  At 
the  time  when  our  Saviour  came  into  the  world,  the 
Greek  language  was  itself  in  a  state  of  degeneracy 
and  decay.  It  had  lost  its  poetic  force,  and  was 
ceasing  to  have  the  sway  over  the  mind  which  classi- 
cal Greek  once  held.  That  is  a  more  important  revo- 
lution in  the  mental  history  of  mankind  than  we  easily 
conceive   in   moderji   times,  when   all  languages   sit 


430  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

loosely  on  thought,  and  the  peculiarities  or  idiosyn- 
crasies of  one  are  corrected  by  our  knowledge  of 
another.  It  may  be  numbered  among  the  causes 
which  favored  the  growth  of  Christianity.  That  de- 
generacy was  a  preparation  for  the  gospel,  —  the 
decaying  soil  in  which  the  new  elements  of  life  were 
to  come  forth  ;  the  beginning  of  another  state  of  man, 
in  which  language  and  mythology  and  philosopliy 
were  no  longer  to  exert  the  same  constraining  power 
as  in  the  ancient  world.  The  civilized  portion  of 
mankind  were  becoming  of  one  speech,  the  diffusion 
of  which  along  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea 
made  a  way  for  the  entrance  of  Christianity  into  the 
human  understanding,  just  as  the  Roman  Empire  pre- 
pared the  framework  of  its  outward  history.  The 
first  of  all  languages  "  for  glory  and  for  beauty  "  had 
become  the  ''  common "  dialect  of  the  Macedonian 
kingdoms  :  it  had  been  moulded  in  the  schools  of 
Alexandria  to  the  ideas  of  the  East  and  the  religious 
wants  of  Jews.  Neither  was  it  any  violence  to  its 
nature  to  be  made  the  vehicle  of  the  new  truths 
which  were  springing  up  in  the  heart  of  man.  The 
definiteness,  and  absence  of  reflectiveness,  in  the  ear- 
lier forms  of  human  speech,  would  have  imposed  a  sort 
of  limit  on  the  freedom  and  spirituality  of  the  gospel : 
even  the  Greek  of  Plato  would  have  "  coldly  furnished 
forth  "  the  words  of  "  eternal  life."  A  religion  which 
was  to  be  universal  required  the  divisions  of  lan- 
guages, as  of  nations,  to  be  in  some  degree  broken 
down.  ("  Poena  linguarum  dispcrsit  homines,  donum 
linguarum  in  unum  collegit.")  But  this  community 
or  freedom  of  language  was  accompanied  by  corre- 
sponding defects  :  it  had  lost  its  logical  precision  ;  it 
was  less  coherent,  and  more  under  the  influence  of 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  431 

association.  It  might  be  compared  to  a  garment  which 
allowed  and  yet  impeded  the  exercise  of  the  mind  by 
being  too  large  and  loose  for  it. 

From  the  inner  life  of  Scripture  it  is  time  to  pass  on 
to  the  consideration  of  this  outward  form,  including 
that  other  framework  of  modes  of  thought,  and  figures 
of  speech,  which  is  between  the  two.  A  knowledge 
of  the  original  language  is  a  necessary  qualification 
of  the  interpreter  of  Scripture.  It  takes  away  at 
least  one  chance  of  error  in  the  explanation  of  a 
passage  ;  it  removes  one  of  the  films  which  have 
gathered  over  the  page  ;  it  brings  the  meaning  home 
in  a  more  intimate  and  subtle  way  than  a  translation 
could  do.  To  this,  however,  another  qualification 
should  be  added  ;  which  is,  the  logical  power  to  per- 
ceive the  meaning  of  words  in  reference  to  their  con- 
text. And  there  is  a  worse  fault  than  ignorance  of 
Greek  in  the  interpretation  of  the  New  Testament ; 
that  is,  ignorance  of  any  language.  The  Greek 
Fathers,  for  example,  are  far  from  being  the  best 
verbal  commentators,  because  their  knowledge  of 
Greek  often  leads  them  away  from  the  drift  of  the 
passage.  The  minuteness  of  the  study  in  our  own 
day  has  also  a  tendency  to  introduce  into  the  text 
associations  which  are  not  really  found  there.  There 
is  a  danger  of  making  words  mean  too  much :  re- 
finements of  signification  are  drawn  out  of  them, 
perhaps  contained  in  their  etymology,  which  are  lost 
in  common  use  and  parlance.  There  is  the  error  of 
interpreting  every  particle  as  though  it  were  a  link  in 
the  argument,  instead  of  being,  as  is  often  the  case, 
an  excrescence  of  style.  The  verbal  critic  magnifies 
his  art ;  which  is  really  great  in  JEschylus  or  Pindar, 
but  not  of  equal  importance  in  the  interpretation  of 


432  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

the  simpler  language  of  the  New  Testament.  His 
love  of  scholarship  will  sometimes  lead  him  to  im- 
press a  false  system  on  words  and  constructions.  A 
great  critic  *  who  has  commented  on  the  three  first 
chapters  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  has  cer- 
tainly afforded  a  proof  that  it  is  possible  to  read  the 
New  Testament  under  a  distorting  influence  from  clas- 
sical Greek.  The  tendency  gains  support  from  the  un- 
defined feeling  that  Scripture  does  not  come  behind 
in  excellence  of  language  any  more  than  of  thought ; 
and  if  not,  as  in  former  days,  the  classic  purity  of  the 
Greek  of  the  New  Testament,  yet  its  certainty  and 
accuracy,  the  assumption  of  which,  as  any  other  as- 
sumption, is  only  the  parent  of  inaccuracy,  is  still 
maintained. 

The  study  of  the  language  of  the  New  Testament 
has  suffered  in  another  way  by  following  too  much  in 
the  track  of  classical  scholarship.  All  dead  languages 
which  have  passed  into  the  hands  of  grammarians 
have  given  rise  to  questions  which  have  either  no 
result,  or  in  which  the  certainty,  or,  if  certain,  the  im- 
portance of  the  result,  is  out  of  proportion  to  the  labor 
spent  in  attaining  it.  The  field  is  exhausted  by  great 
critics,  and  then  subdivided  among  lesser  ones.  The 
subject,  unlike  that  of  physical  science,  has  a  limit ; 
and,  unless  new  ground  is  broken  up,  —  as,  for  exam- 
ple, in  mythology  or  comparative  philology,  —  is  apt 
to  grow  barren.  Though  it  is  not  true  to  say  that 
"  we  know  as  much  about  the  Greeks  and  Komans 
as  we  ever  shall,"  it  is  certain  that  we  run  a  danger, 
from  the  deficiency  of  material,  of  wasting  time 
in   questions   which   do    not    add    anything    to    real 

*  Herman. 


ON   THE   INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  433 

knowledge,  or  in  conjectures  which  must  always  re- 
main uncertain,  and  may,  in  turn,  give  way  to  other 
conjectures  in  the  next  generation.  Little  points  may 
be  of  great  importance  when  rightly  determined,  be- 
cause the  observation  of  them  tends  to  quicken  the 
instinct  of  language  ;  but  conjectures  about  little 
things,  or  rules  respecting  them,  which  were  not  in 
the  mind  of  Greek  authors  themselves,  are  not  of 
equal  value.  There  is  the  scholasticism  of  philology, 
not  only  in  the  Alexandrian,  but  in  our  own  times ; 
as,  in  the  middle  ages,  there  was  the  scholasticism  of 
philosophy.  Questions  of  mere  orthography,  about 
which  there  cannot  be  said  to  have  been  a  right  or 
wrong,  have  been  pursued  almost  with  a  Rabbinical 
minuteness.  The  story  of  the  scholar  who  regretted 
'^  that  he  had  not  concentrated  his  life  on  the  dative 
case  "  is  hardly  a  caricature  of  the  spirit  of  such  in- 
quiries. The  form  of  notes  to  the  classics  often 
seems  to  arise  out  of  a  necessity  for  observing  a  cer- 
tain proportion  between  the  commentary  and  the 
text.  And  the  same  tendency  is  noticeable  in  many 
of  the  critical  and  philological  observations  which  are 
made  on  the  New  Testament.  The  field  of  biblical 
criticism  is  narrower,  and  its  materials  more  frag- 
mentary :  so,  too,  the  minuteness  and  uncertainty 
of  the  questions  raised  has  been  greater.  For  ex- 
ample, the  discussions  respecting  the  chronology  of 
St.  Paul's  life  and  his  second  imprisonment  ;  or 
about  the  identity  of  James,  the  brother  of  the  Lord ; 
or,  in  another  department,  respecting  the  use  of 
the  Greek  article,  —  have  gone  far  beyond  the  line 
of  utility. 

There   seem   to  be   reasons   for  doubting  whether 
any  considerable  light   can   be  thrown  on  the  New 
19'  BB 


434  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

Testament  from  inquiry  into  tlic  language.  Such  in- 
quiries are  popular,  because  they  are  safe  ;  but  their 
popularity  is  not  the  measure  of  their  use.  It  has  not 
been  sufficiently  considered,  that  the  difficulties  of  the 
New  Testament  are  for  the  most  part  common  to  the 
Greek  and  the  English.  The  noblest  translation  in 
the  world  has  a  few  great  errors,  more  than  half  of 
them  in  the  text ;  but  "  we  do  it  violence  "  to  hag- 
gle over  the  words.  Minute  corrections  of  tenses  or 
particles  are  no  good :  they  spoil  the  English,  without 
being  nearer  the  Greek.  Apparent  mistranslations  are 
often  due  to  a  better  knowledge  of  English  rather  than  . 
a  worse  knowledge  of  Greek.  It  is  true  that  the  sig- 
nification of  a  few  uncommon  expressions,  e.g.^  e^ovcrua^ 
eTTifiakcov,  avvairajofxevocy  k.  t.  X.,  is  yet  uncertain ;  but 
no  result  of  consequence  would  follow  from  the  attain- 
ment of  absolute  certainty  respecting  the  meaning  of  any 
of  these.  A  more  promising  field  opens  to  the  interpre- 
ter in  the  examination  of  theological  Herms,  such  as 
"faith"  (Tr/o-rt?),  "grace"  (x^p^O^  "righteousness" 
(pLKaioavvrf)^  "  sanctification  "  (^dytaa/JLo^^^  "  the  law" 
(^udfio^'),  "the  spirit"  Qirvev^d)^  "the  comforter" 
(irapoLKkriTo^')^  (fee.,  provided  always  that  the  use  of 
such  terms  in  the  New  Testament  is  clearly  separated 
(1)  from  their  derivation  or  previous  use  in  classical 
or  Alexandrian  Greek ;  (2)  from  their  after-use  in  the 
Fathers  and  in  systems  of  theology.  To  which  may  be 
added  another  select  class  of  words,  descriptive  of  the 
offices  or  customs  of  tlie  Apostolic  Church ;  such 
as  "apostle"  (aTroo-roXo?),  "bishop"  (eTr/cr/coTTo?), 
"elder"  (Trpeo-ySi/repo?),  "  deacon  and  deaconess "  (o 
Koi  Tj  BiccKovo^')^  "love-feast"  (ajairai^^  "the  Lord's 
day"  (fi  KvpiaKj]  rjfjiepa^^  &G.  It  is  a  lexilogus  of  these 
and  similar  terms,  rather  than  a  lexicon  of  the  entire 


ON  THE  INTERPKETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE.  435 

Greek  Testament,  that  is  required.  Interesting  sub- 
jects of  real  inquiry  are  also  the  comparison  of  the 
Greek  of  the  New  Testament  with  modern  Greek  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  Greek  of  the  LXX.  on  the 
other.  It  is  not  likely,  however,  that  they  will  afford 
much  more  help  than  they  have  already  done  in  the 
elucidation  of  the  Greek  of  the  New  Testament. 

It  is  for  others  to  investigate  the  language  of  the 
Old  Testament,  to  which  the  preceding  remarks  are 
only  in  part  applicable.  (It  may  be  observed  in  pass- 
ing, of  this  as  of  any  other  old  language,  that  not  the 
later  form  of  the  language,  but  the  cognate  dialects, 
must  ever  be  the  chief  source  of  its  illustration ;  for,  in 
every  ancient  language  antecedent  or  contemporary 
forms,  not  the  subsequent  ones,  afford  the  real  insight 
into  its  nature  and  structure.  It  must  also  be  admitted 
that  very  great  and  real  obscurities  exist  in  the  Eng- 
lish translation  of  the  Old  Testament,  which  even  a 
superficial  acquaintance  with  the  original  has  a  ten- 
dency to  remove.)  Leaving,  however,  to  others  the 
consideration  of  the  Semitic  languages  which  raise 
questions  of  a  different  kind  from  the  Hellenistic 
Greek,  we  will  offer  a  few  remarks  on  the  latter. 
Much  has  been  said  of  the  increasing  accuracy  of 
our  knowledge  of  the  language  of  the  New  Testament. 
The  old  Hebraistic  method  of  explaining  difficulties 
of  language  or  construction  has  retired  within  very 
narrow  limits :  it  might  probably,  with  advantage,  be 
confined  to  still  narrower  ones  (if  it  have  any  place 
at  all,  except  in  the  Apocalypse  or  the  Gospel  of  St. 
Matthew).  There  is,  perhaps,  some  confusion  be- 
tween accuracy  of  our  knowledge  of  language,  and 
the  accuracy  of  language  itself ;  which  is  also  strong- 
ly maintained.     It   is   observed  that   the  usages   of 


486  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

barbarous  as  well  as  civilized  nations  conform  perfect- 
ly to  grammatical  rules  ;  that  the  uneducated  in  all 
countries  have  certain  laws  of  speech  as  much  as 
Shakespeare  or  Bacon :  the  usages  of  Lucian,  it  may 
be  said,  are  as  regular  as  those  of  Plato,  even  when 
they  arc  different.  The  decay  of  language  seems 
rather  to  witness  to  the  permanence  than  to  the 
changeableness  of  its  structure  :  it  is  the  flesh,  not 
the  bones,  that  begin  to  drop  off.  But  such  general 
remarks,  although  just,  afford  but  little  help  in  de- 
termining the  character  of  the  Greek  of  the  New 
Testament,  which  has,  of  course,  a  certain  system ; 
failing  in  which,  it  would  cease  to  be  a  language. 
Some  further  illustration  is  needed  of  the  change 
which  has  passed  upon  it.  All  languages  do  not  de- 
cay in  the  same  manner ;  and  the  influence  of  decay 
in  the  same  language  may  be  different  in  different 
countries  ;  when  used  in  writing  and  in  speaking ; 
when  applied  to  the  matters  of  ordinary  life,  and  to 
the  higher  truths  of  philosophy  or  religion.  And  the 
degeneracy  of  language  itself  is  not  a  mere  principle 
of  dissolution,  but  creative  also :  while  dead  and  rigid 
in  some  of  its  uses.,  it  is  elastic  and  expansive  in 
others.  The  decay  of  an  ancient  language  is  the  be- 
ginning of  the  construction  of  a  modern  one.  The 
loss  of  some  usages  gives  a  greater  precision  or  free- 
dom to  others.  The  logical  element  —  as,  for  example, 
in  the  mediaeval  Latin  —  will  probably  be  strongest 
when  the  poetical  has  vanished.  A  great  movement, 
like  the  Reformation  in  Germany,  passing  over  a 
nation,  may  give  a  new  birth  also  to  its  language. 
These  remarks  may  be  applied  to  the  Greek  of 
the  New  Testament,  which,  although  classed  vaguely 
under  the  "  common  dialect,"  has,  nevertheless,  many 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE.  437 

features  which  are  altogether  peculiar  to  itself,  and 
such  as  are  found  in  no  other  remains  of  ancient  lit- 
erature. 1.  It  is  more  unequal  in  style,  even  in  the 
same  books  ;  that  is  to  say,  more  original  and  plastic 
in  one  part,  more  rigid  and  unpliable  in  another. 
There  is  a  want  of  the  continuous  power  to  frame  a 
paragraph,  or  to  arrange  clauses  in  subordination  to 
each  other,  even  to  the  extent  to  which  it  was  pos- 
sessed by  a  Greek  scholiast  or  rhetorician.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  is  a  fulness  of  life,  "  a  new  birth," 
in  the  use  of  abstract  terms,  which  is  not  found  else- 
where, after  the  golden  age  of  Greek  philosophy. 
Almost  the  only  passage  in  the  New  Testament  which 
reads  like  a  Greek  period  of  the  time,  is  the  first  para- 
graph of  the  Gospel  according  to  St.  Luke,  and  the 
corresponding  words  of  the  Acts.  But  the  power  and 
meaning  of  the  characteristic  words  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament is  in  remarkable  contrast  with  the  vapid  and 
general  use  of  the  same  words  in  Philo  about  the  same 
time.  There  is  also  a  sort  of  lyrical  passion  in  some 
passages  (1  Cor.  xiii.  ;  2  Cor.  vi.  6-10 ;  xi.  21-33), 
which  is  a  new  thing  in  the  literature  of  the  world  ; 
to  which,  at  any  rate,  no  Greek  author  of  a  later  age 
furnishes  any  parallel.  2.  Tliough  written,  the  Greek 
of  the  New  Testament  partakes  of  the  character  of  a 
spoken  language :  it  is  more  lively  and  simple,  and 
less  structural,  than  ordinary  writing ;  a  peculiarity 
of  style  which  further  agrees  with  the  circumstance, 
that  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  were  not  written  with  his 
own  hand,  but  probably  dictated  to  an  amanuensis ; 
and  that  the  Gospels  also  probably  originate  in  an  oral 
narrative.  3.  The  ground-colors  of  the  language  may 
be  said  to  be  two :  first,  the  LXX.,  which  is  modified, 
secondly,  by  the  spoken  Greek  of  Eastern  countries, 


438  ON  THE  INTERPEETATION  OF  SCRIPTURE. 

and  tlio  differences  Trliicli  might  be  expected  to  arise 
between  a  translation  and  an  original.  Many  Hebra- 
isms would  occur  in  the  Greek  of  a  translator,  which 
would  never  have  come  to  his  pen  but  for  the  influ- 
ence of  the  work  which  he  was  translating.  4.  To 
wliicli  may  be  added  a  few  Latin  and  Chaldee  words, 
and  a  few  Rabbinical  formulas.  The  influence  of 
Hebrew  or  Chaldee  in  the  New  Testament  is  for  the 
most  part  at  a  distance,  in  the  background,  acting  not 
directly,  but  mediately,  through  the  LXX.  It  has 
much  to  do  with  the  clausular  structure  and  general 
form,  but  hardly  anything  with  the  grammatical 
usage.  Philo,  too,  did  not  know  Hebrew,  or  at  least 
the  Hebrew  Scriptures  ;  yet  there  is  also  a  "  medi- 
ate "  influence  of  Hebrew  traceable  in  his  writings. 
5.  There  is  an  element  of  constraint  in  the  style  of  the 
New  Testament,  arising  from  the  circumstance  of  its 
authors  writing  in  a  language  which  was  not  their 
own.  This  constraint  shows  itself  in  the  repetition  of 
words  and  phrases ;  in  the  verbal  oppositions  and 
anacolutha  of  St.  Paul ;  in  the  short  sentences  of  St. 
John.  This  is  further  increased  by  the  fact  that  the 
writers  of  the  New  Testament  were  "  unlearned  men," 
who  had  not  the  same  power  of  writing  as  of  speech. 
Moreover,  as  has  been  often  remarked,  the  difficulty 
of  composition  increases  in  proportion  to  the  great- 
ness of  the  subject :  e.  g.  the  narrative  of  Thucydides 
is  easy  and  intelligible,  while  his  reflections  and 
speeches  are  full  of  confusion ;  the  effort  to  con- 
centrate seems  to  interfere  with  the  consecutiveness 
and  fluency  of  ideas.  Something  of  this  kind  is  dis- 
cernible in  those  passages  of  the  Epistles  in  which  the 
Apostle  St.  Paul  is  seeking  to  set  forth  the  opposite 
sides  of  God's  dealing  with  men  :  e.  g.  Rom.  iii.  1-9, 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE.  489 

ix.,  X. ;  or  in  which  the  sequence  of  the  thought  is 
interrupted  by  the  conflict  of  emotions,  1  Cor.  ix.  20 ; 
Gal.  iv.  11-20.  6.  The  power  of  the  gospel  over 
language  must  be  recognized,  showing  itself,  first  of 
all,  in  the  original  and  consequently  variable  significa- 
tion of  words  (7r/<7Tfc?,  %«f)t9,  acorypla')^  which  is  also 
more  comprehensive  and  human  than  the  heretical 
usage  of  many  of  the  same  terms,  —  e.  g.  yvcocn^i 
("knowledge"),  o-ocpla  ("wisdom"),  Krcac^  ("crea- 
ture, creation  ")  ;  secondly,  in  a  peculiar  use  of  some 
constructions,  such  as  ScKatoa-vvrj  0eov  ("righteous- 
ness of  God"),  TTto-Tt?  Irjo-ov  XpKTTov  ("faith  of 
Jesus  Christ"),  ev  Xpiarcp  ("in  Christ"),  eV  Oeo) 
("in  God"),  vTTep  rj/nwv  ("for  us"),  in  which  the 
meaning  of  the  genitive  case  or  of  the  preposition 
almost  escapes  our  notice,  from  familiarity  with  the 
sound  of  it.  Lastly,  the  degeneracy  of  the  Greek 
language  is  traceable  in  the  failure  of  syntactical 
power ;  in  the  insertion  of  prepositions  to  denote 
relations  of  thought,  which  classical  Greek,  would 
have  expressed  by  the  case  only ;  in  the  omission  of 
them  when  classical  Greek  would  have  required  them  ; 
in  the  incipient  use  of  Iva  witli  the  subjunctive  for  the 
infinitive  ;  in  the  confusion  of  ideas  of  cause  and 
effect ;  in  the  absence  of  the  article  in  the  case  of  an 
increasing  number  of  words  which  are  passing  into 
proper  names ;  in  the  loss  of  the  finer  shades  of  dif- 
ference in  the  negative  particles ;  in  the  occasional 
confusion  of  the  aorist  and  perfect ;  in  excessive  fond- 
ness for  particles  of  reasoning  or  inference  ;  in  various 
forms  of  apposition,  especially  that  of  the  word  to  the 
sentence ;  in  the  use,  sometimes  emphatic,  sometimes 
only  pleonastic,  of  the  personal  and  demonstrative 
pronouns.  These  are  some  of  the  signs  that  the  lan- 
guage is  breaking  up,  and  losing  its  structure. 


440  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF  SCRIPTURE. 

Our  knowledge  of  the  New  Testament  is  derived 
almost  exclusively  from  itself.  Of  the  language,  as 
well  as  of  the  suhject,  it  may  be  truly  said,  that  what 
other  writers  contribute  is  nothing  in  comparison  of 
that  which  is  gained  from  observation  of  the  text. 
Some  inferences  which  may  be  gathered  from  this 
general  fact  are  the  following  :  First,  that  less  weight 
should  be  given  to  lexicons,  that  is,  to  the  authority 
of  other  Greek  writers,  and  more  to  the  context.  The 
use  of  a  word  in  a  new  sense,  the  attribution  of  a  neu- 
ter meaning  to  a  verb  elsewhere  passive  (Rom.  iii.  9, 
'Trpoe')(o[jbe6a)^  the  resolution  of  the  compound  into  two 
simple  notions  (Gal.  iii.  1,  irpoeypd^T)^^  —  these,  when 
the  context  requires  it,  are  not  to  be  set  aside  by  the 
scholar  because  sanctioned  by  no  known  examples. 
The  same  remark  applies  to  grammars  as  well  as  lexi- 
cons. We  cannot  be  certain  that  hua  with  the  accusa- 
tive never  has  the  same  meaning  as  ha  with  the 
genitive  (Gal.  iv.  13  ;  Phil.  i.  15),  or  that  the  article 
always  retains  its  defining  power  (2  Cor.  i.  17  ;  Acts 
xvii.  1),  or  that  the  perfect  is  never  used  in  place  of 
the  aorist  (1  Cor.  xv.  4  ;  Rev.  v.  7,  &c.)  ;  still  less  can 
we  affirm  that  the  latter  end  of  a  sentence  never  for- 
gets tJie  beginning  (Rom.  ii.  17-21 ;  v.  12-18  ;  ix.  22  ; 
xvi.  25-27;  &c.,  (fee).  Foreign  influences  tend  to 
derange  the  strong  natural  perception  or  remembrance 
of  the  analogy  of  our  own  language.  That  is  very 
likely  to  have  occurred  in  the  case  of  some  of  the 
writers  of  the  New  Testament :  that  there  is  such  a 
derangement,  is  a  fact.  There  is  no  probability  in  fa- 
vor of  St.  Paul  writing  in  broken  sentences  ;  but  there 
is  no  improbability  which  should  lead  us  to  assume  in 
such  sentences  continuous  grammar  and  thought,  as 
appears  to  have  been  the  feeling  of  the  copyists  who 


ON   THE   INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  441 

have  corrected  the  anacohitha.  The  occurrence  of 
them  further  justifies  the  interpreter  in  using  some 
freedom  with  other  passages  in  which  the  syntax  does 
not  absohitely  break  down.  When  "  confusion  of  two 
constructions,"  "  meaning  to  say  one  thing,  and  finish- 
ing with  another :  "  "  saying  two  things  in  one,  instead 
of  disposing  them  in  their  logical  sequence,"  —  are 
attributed  to  the  apostle,  the  use  of  these  and  similar 
expressions  is  defended  by  the  fact,  that  more  numer- 
ous anacolutha  occur  in  St.  Paul's  writings  than  in 
any  equal  portion  of  the  New  Testament,  and  far  more 
than  in  the  writings  of  any  other  Greek  author  of 
equal  length. 

Passing  from  the  grammatical  structure,  we  may 
briefly  consider  the  logical  character  of  the  language 
of  the  New  Testament.  Two  things  should  be  here 
distinguished,  —  the  logical  form  and  the  logical  se- 
quence of  thought.  Some  ages  have  been  remarkable 
for  the  former  of  these  two  characteristics  :  they  have 
dealt  in  opposition,  contradiction,  climax,  pleonasm, 
reason  within  reason,  and  the  like  ;  mere  statements 
taking  the  form  of  arguments,  each  sentence  seeming 
to  be  a  link  in  a  chain.  In  such  periods  of  literature, 
the  appearance  of  logic  is  rhetorical,  and  is  to  be  set 
down  to  the  style.  That  is  the  case  with  many  pas- 
sages in  the  New  Testament  which  are  studded  with 
logical  or  rhetorical  formulae,  especially  in  the  Epistles 
of  St.  Paul.  Nothing  can  be  more  simple  or  natu- 
ral than  the  object  of  the  writer ;  yet  "  forms  of  the 
schools  "  appear  (whether  learnt  at  the  feet  of  Gama- 
liel, that  reputed  master  of  Greek  learning,  or  not), 
which  imply  a  degree  of  logical  or  rhetorical  training. 

The  observation  of  this  rhetorical  or  logical  element 
has  a  bearing  on  the  interpretation  of  Scripture ;  for 
'19* 


442  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF  SCRIPTURE. 

it  leads  us  to  distinguish  between  the  superficial  con- 
nection of  words  and  the  real  connection  of  thoughts. 
Otherwise,  injustice  is  done  to  the  argument  of  the 
sacred  writer,  who  may  be  supposed  to  violate  logical 
rules,  of  which  he  is  unconscious.     For  example,  the 
argument  of  Rom.  iii.  19  may  be  classed  by  the  logi- 
cians under  some  head  of  fallacy  ("  Ex  aliquo  non  se- 
quitur  omnis  ")  ;  the  series  of  inferences  which  follow 
one  another  in  Rom.  i.  16  - 18  are  for  the  most  part 
different  aspects  or  statements  of  the  same  truth.     So 
in  Rom.  i.  32,  the  climax  rather  appears  to  be  an  anti- 
climax.    But  to  dwell  on  these  things  interferes  with 
the  true  perception  of  the  apostle's  meaning,  which  is 
not  contained  in  the  repetitions  of  yap  by  which  it  is 
hooked   together  ;    nor   are  we   accurately  to  weigh 
the  proportions  expressed  by  his  ov  fiovov — aWa  koI; 
or  TToXXft)  fiaXkov  :  neither  need  we  suppose,  that,  where 
IJ'ev  is  found  alone,  there  was  a  reason  for  the  omission 
of  Se  (Rom.  i.  8  ;  iii.  2)  ;  or  that  the  opposition  of 
words  and  sentences  is  always  the  opposition  of  ideas 
(Rom.  V.  7  ;  x.  10).     It  is  true  that  these  and  sim- 
ilar forms  or  distinctions  of  language  admit  of  trans- 
lation into  English  ;  and,   in  every  case,   the   inter- 
preter may  find  some  point  of  view  in  which  the  sim- 
plest truth  of  feeling  may  be  drawn  out  in  an  anti- 
thetical or  argumentative  form.     But  whether  these 
points  of  view  were  in  the  apostle's  mind  at  the  time 
of  writing  may  be  doubted  :  the  real  meaning,  or  ker- 
nel, seems  to  lie  deeper,  and  to  be  more  within.    When 
we  pass  from  the  study  of  each  verse  to  survey  the 
whole  at  a  greater  distance,  the  form  of  thought  is 
again  seen  to  be  unimportant  in  comparison  of  the 
truth  which  is  contained  in  it.    The  same  remark  may 
be  extended  to  the  opposition,  not  only  of  words,  but 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  443 

of  ideas,  which  is  found  in  the  Scriptures  generally, 
and  almost  seems  to  be  inherent  in  human  language 
itself.  The  law  is  opposed  to  faith,  good  to  evil,  the 
spirit  to  the  flesh,  light  to  darkness,  the  world  to  the 
believer ;  the  sheep  are  set  "  on  his  right  hand,  but 
the  goats  on  the  left."  The  influence  of  this  logical 
opposition  has  been  great,  and  not  always  without 
abuse  in  practice  ;  for  the  opposition  is  one  of  ideas 
only,  which  is  not  realized  in  fact.  Experience  shows 
us,  not  that  there  are  two  classes  of  men  animated  by 
two  opposing  principles,  but  an  infinite  number  of 
classes  or  individuals  from  the  lowest  depths  of  misery 
and  sin  to  the  highest  perfection  of  which  human 
nature  is  capable  ;  the  best  not  wholly  good,  the  worst 
not  entirely  evil.  But  the  figure  or  mode  of  repre- 
sentation changes  these  differences  of  degree  into 
differences  of  kind  ;  and  we  often  think  and  speak 
and  act,  in  reference  both  to  ourselves  and  others, 
as  though  the  figaire  were  altogether  a  reality. 

Other  questions  arise  out  of  the  analysis  of  the 
modes  of  thought  of  Scripture.  Unless  we  are  willing 
to  use  words  without  inquiring  into  their  meaning,  it 
is  necessary  for  us  to  arrange  them  in  some  relation 
to  our  own  minds.  The  modes  of  thought  of  the  Old 
Testament  are  not  the  same  with  those  of  the  New, 
and  those  of  the  New  are  only  partially  the  same  with 
those  in  use  among  ourselves  at  the  present  day.  The 
education  of  the  human  mind  may  be  traced  as  clear- 
ly from  the  book  of  Genesis  to  the  Epistles  of  St. 
Paul,  as  from  Homer  to  Plato  and  Aristotle.  Wlien 
we  hear  St.  Paul  speaking  of  "  body  and  soul  and 
spirit,"  we  know  that  such  language  as  this  would 
not  occur  in  the  books  of  Moses  or  in  the  Prophet 
Isaiah.     It  has  the  color  of  a  later   age,  in   which 


444  ON   THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

abstract  terms  have  taken  the  place  of  expressions 
derived  from  material  objects.  When  we  proceed  fur- 
ther to  compare  these  or  other  words  or  expressions 
of  St.  Paul  with  "the  body  and  mind,"  or  "mind" 
and  "  matter,"  which  is  a  distinction,  not  only  of  phi- 
losophy, but  of  common  language  among  ourselves,  it 
is  not  easy  at  once  to  determine  the  relation  between 
them.  Familiar  as  is  the  sound  of  both  expressions, 
many  questions  arise  when  we  begin  to  compare 
them. 

This  is  the  metaphysical  difficulty  in  the  interpre- 
tation of  Scripture,  which  it  is  better  not  to  ignore, 
because  the  consideration  of  it  is  necessary  to  the 
understanding  of  many  passages,  and  also  because  it 
may  return  upon  us  in  the  form  of  materialism  or 
scepticism.  To  some,  who  are  not  aware  how  little 
words  affect  the  nature  of  things,  it  may  seem  to  raise 
speculations  of  a  very  serious  kind.  Their  doubts 
would,  perhaps,  find  expression  in  some  such  excla- 
mations as  the  following :  "  How  is  religion  possi- 
ble, when  modes  of  thought  are  shifting,  and  words 
changing  their  meaning,  and  statements  of  doctrine, 
though  '  starched  '  with  philosophy,  are  in  perpet- 
ual danger  of  dissolution  from  metaphysical  analy- 
sis ? " 

The  answer  seems  to  be,  that  Christian  truth  is 
not  dependent  on  the  fixedness  of  modes  of  thought. 
The  metaphysician  may  analyze  the  ideas  of  the  mind, 
just  as  the  physiologist  may  analyze  the  powers  or 
parts  of  the  bodily  frame,  yet  morality  and  social 
life  still  go  on,  as,  in  the  body,  digestion  is  uninter- 
rupted. That  is  not  an  illustration  only:  it  repre- 
sents the  fact.  Though  we  had  no  words  for  "  mind, 
matter,  soul,  body,"  and  the  like,  Christianity  would 


ON  THE  INTEEPEETATION   OF   SCRIP TUEE.  445 

remain  the  same.  This  is  obvious,  whether  we  think 
of  the  case  of  the  poor,  who  understand  such  distinc- 
tions very  imperfectly,  or  of  those  nations  of  the 
earth  who  have  no  precisely  corresponding  division 
of  ideas.  It*  is  not  of  that  subtle  or  evanescent  char- 
acter which  is  liable  to  be  lost  in  shifting  the  use  of 
terms.  Indeed,  it  is  an  advantage  at  times  to  discard 
these  terms,  with  the  view  of  getting  rid  of  the  op- 
positions to  which  they  give  rise.  No  metaphysical 
analysis  can  prevent  "  our  taking  up  the  cross  and 
following  Christ,"  or  receiving  the  kingdom  of  Heaven 
as  little  children.  To  analyze  the  "  trichotomy  "  of 
St.  Paul  is  interesting  as  a  chapter  in  the  history  of 
the  human  mind,  and  necessary  as  a  part  of  biblical 
exegesis  ;  but  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  religion 
of  Christ.  Christian  duties  may  be  enforced,  and 
the  life  of  Christ  may  be  the  centre  of  our  thoughts, 
whether  we  speak  of  reason  and  faith,  of  soul  and 
body,  or  of  mind  and  matter,  or  adopt  a  mode 
of  speech  which  dispenses  w^th  any  of  these  divis- 
ions. 

Connected  with  the  modes  of  thought  or  repre- 
sentation in  Scripture  are  the  figures  of  speech  of 
Scripture,  about  which  the  same  question  may  be 
asked :  "  What  division  can  we  make  between  the 
figure  and  the  reality  ? "  And  the  answer  seems  to 
be  of  the  same  kind,  that  "  we  cannot  precisely  draw 
the  line  between  them."  Language,  and  especially 
the  language  of  Scripture,  does  not  admit  of  any 
sharp  distinction.  The  simple  expressions  of  one  age 
become  the  allegories  or  figures  of  another :  many  of 
those  in  the  New  Testament  are  taken  from  the  Old. 
But  neither  is  there  anything  really  essential  in  the 
form  of  these  figures ;  nay,  the  literal  application  of 


446  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

many  of  them  has  been  a  great  stumbling-block  to  the 
reception  of  Christianity.  A  recent  commentator  on 
Scripture  appears  willing  to  peril  religion  on  the 
literal  truth  of  such  an  expression  as  "  We  shall  be 
caught  up  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air."  Would  he 
be  equally  ready  to  stake  Christianity  on  the  literal 
meaning  of  the  words,  "  Where  their  worm  dieth  not, 
and  the  fire  is  not  quenched  "  ? 

Of  what  has  been  said,  this  is  the  sum:  "That 
Scripture,  like  other  books,  has  one  meaning,  which 
is  to  be  gathered  from  itself,  without  reference  to  the 
adaptations  of  fathers  or  divines,  and  without  regard 
to  a  priori  notions  about  its  nature  and  origin.  It  is 
to  be  interpreted  like  other  books,  with  attention  to 
the  character  of  its  authors,  and  the  prevailing  state 
of  civilization  and  knowledge,  with  allowance  for 
peculiarities  of  style  and  language,  and  modes  of 
thought,  and  figures  of  speech ;  yet  not  without  a 
sense,  that,  as  we  read,  there  grows  upon  us  the  wit- 
ness of  God  in  the  world,  anticipating  in  a  rude  and 
primitive  age  the  truth  that  was  to  be,  shining  more 
and  more  unto  the  perfect  day  in  the  life  of  Christ, 
which  again  is  reflected  from  different  points  of  view 
in  the  teachings  of  his  apostles." 

§5. 

It  has  been  a  principal  aim  of  the  preceding  pages 
to  distinguish  the  interpretation  from  the  application 
of  Scripture.  Many  of  the  errors  alluded  to  arise 
out  of  a  confusion  of  the  two.  The  present  is  nearer 
to  us  than  the  past ;  the  circumstances  which  sur- 
round us  preoccupy  our  thoughts  :  it  is  only  by  an 
effort  that  we  reproduce  the  ideas  or  events  or  per- 
sons of  other  ages.     And  thus,  quite  naturally,  almost 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  447 

by  a  law  of  the  human  mind,  the  application  of  Scrip- 
ture takes  the  place  of  its  original  meaning :  and 
the  question  is,  not  how  to  get  rid  of  this  natural 
tendency,  but  how  we  may  have  the  true  use  of  it ; 
for  it  cannot  be  got  rid  of,  or  rather  is  one  of  the 
chief  instruments  of  religious  usefulness  in  the  world. 
"  Ideas  must  be  given  through  something :  "  those  of 
religion  find  their  natural  expression  in  the  words 
of  Scripture,  in  the  adaptation  of  which  to  another 
state  of  life  it  is  hardly  possible  that  the  first  intention 
of  the  writers  should  be  always  preserved.  Interpre- 
tation is  the  province  of  few :  it  requires  a  finer 
perception  of  language  and  a  higher  degree  of  cul- 
tivation than  is  attained  by  the  majority  of  mankind. 
But  applications  are  made  by  all,  from  the  philoso- 
pher reading  "  God  in  History,"  to  the  poor  woman 
who  finds  in  them  a  response  to  her  prayers,  and  the 
solace  of  her  daily  life.  In  the  hour  of  death,  we  do 
not  want  critical  explanations :  in  most  cases,  those 
to  whom  they  would  be  ofiered  are  incapable  of  un- 
derstanding them.  A  few  words,  breathing  the  sense 
of  the  whole  Christian  world,  such  as  "  I  know  that 
my  Redeemer  liveth  "  (though  the  exact  meaning  of 
them  may  be  doubtful  to  the  Hebrew  scholar)  ;  "  I 
shall  go  to  him,  but  he  shall  not  return  to  me,"  — 
touch  a  chord  which  would  never  be  reached  by  the 
most  skilful  exposition  of  the  argument  of  one  of  St. 
Paul's  Epistles. 

There  is  also  a  use  of  Scripture  in  education  and 
literature.  This  literary  use,  though  secondary  to  the 
religious  one,  is  not  unimportant.  It  supplies  a  com- 
mon language  to  the  educated  and  uneducated,  in 
which  the  best  and  highest  thoughts  of  both  are 
expressed :    it   is  .  a   medium    between    the    abstract 


448  ON   THE   INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

notions  of  the  one  and  the  simple  feehngs  of  the 
other.  To  the  poor  especially,  it  conveys,  in  the  form 
which  they  are  most  capable  of  receiving,  the  les- 
son of  history  and  life.  The  beauty  and  power  of 
speech  and  writing  would  be  greatly  impaired,  if 
the  Scriptures  ceased  to  be  known  or  used  among 
us.  The  orator  seems  to  catch  from  them  a  sort 
of  inspiration.  In  the  simple  words  of  Scripture 
which  he  stamps  anew,  the  philosopher  often  finds 
his  most  pregnant  expressions.  If  modern  times 
have  been  richer  in  the  wealth  of  abstract  thought, 
the  contribution  of  earlier  ages  to  the  mind  of  the 
world  has  not  been  less,  but  perhaps  greater,  in 
supplying  the  poetry  of  language.  There  is  no 
such  treasury  of  instruments  and  materials  as  Scrip- 
ture. The  loss  of  Homer,  or  the  loss  of  Shakespeare, 
would  have  affected  the  whole  series  of  Greek  or 
English  authors  who  follow.  But  the  disappearance 
of  the  Bible  from  the  books  which  the  world  con- 
tains would  produce  results  far  greater:  we  can 
scarcely  conceive  the  degree  in  which  it  would 
alter  literature  and  language,  —  the  ideas  of  the 
educated  and  philosophical,  as  well  as  the  feelings, 
and  habits  of  mind,  of  the  poor.  If  it  has  been 
said,  with  an  allowable  hyperbole,  that  "  Homer  is 
Greece,"  with  much  more  truth  may  it  be  said  that 
"  the  Bible  is  Christendom." 

Many,  by  whom  considerations  of  this  sort  will 
be  little  understood,  may,  nevertheless,  recognize 
the  use  made  of  the  Old  Testament  in  the  New. 
The  religion  of  Christ  was  first  taught  by  an  ap- 
plication of  the  words  of  the  Psalms  and  the  Proph- 
ets. Our  Lord  himself  sanctions  this  application. 
"  Can  there  be  a  better  use  of  Scripture  than  that 


ON  THE  INTERPKETATION   OF  SCRIPTURE.  449 

which  is  made  by  Scripture  ?  "  —  "  Or  any  more  hkely 
method  of  teaching  the  truths  of  Christianity  than 
that  by  which  they  were  first  taught  ?  "  For  it  may 
be  argued,  that  the  critical  interpretation  of  Scrip- 
ture is  a  device  almost  of  yesterday :  it  is  the  Yoca- 
tion  of  the  scholar  or  philosopher,  not  of  the  apostle 
or  prophet.  The  new  truth  which  was  introduced 
into  the  Old  Testament,  rather  than  the  old  truth 
which  was  found  there,  was  the  salvation  and  the 
conversion  of  the  world.  There  are  many  quotations 
from  the  Psalms  and  the  Prophets  in  the  Epistles, 
in  which  the  meaning  is  quickened  or  spiritualized ; 
but  hardly  any,  probably  none,  which  is  based  on  the 
original  sense  or  context.  That  is  not  so  singular  a 
phenomenon  as  may  at  first  sight  be  imagined.  It 
may  appear  strange  to  us  that  Scripture  should  be 
interpreted  in  Scripture,  in  a  manner  not  altogether 
in  agreement  with  modern  criticism ;  but  would  it  not 
be  more  strange  that  it  should  be  interpreted  other- 
wise than  in  agreement  with  the  ideas  of  the  age  or 
country  in  which  it  was  written  ?  The  observation 
that  there  is  such  an  agreement  leads  to  two  conclu- 
sions, which  have  a  bearing  on  our  present  subject : 
first,  it  is  a  reason  for  not  insisting  on  the  applica- 
tions which  the  New  Testament  makes  of  passages  in 
the  Old,  as  their  original  meaning ;  secondly,  it  gives 
authority  and  precedent  for  the  use  of  similar  appli- 
cations in  our  own  day. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  though  interwoven  with 
literature,  though  common  to  all  ages  of  the  Church, 
though  sanctioned  by  our  Lord  and  his  apostles,  it  is 
easy  to  see  that  such  an  employment  of  Scripture  is 
liable  to  error  and  perversion.  For  it  may  not  only 
I'eceive  a  new  meaning :  it  may  be  applied  in  a  spirit 

cc 


450  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

alien  to  itself.  It  may  become  the  symbol  of  fanat- 
icism, the  cloak  of  malice,  the  disguise  of  policy. 
Cromwell  at  Drogheda,  quoting  Scripture  to  his  sol- 
diers ;  the  well-known  attack  on  the  Puritans  in  the 
State  service  for  the  Restoration,  "Not  every  one  that 
saith  unto  me,  Lord,  Lord  ; "  the  reply  of  the  Yenetian 
ambassador  to  the  suggestion  of  Wolsey,  that  Yenice 
should  take  a  lead  in  Italy,  "  which  was  only  the  earth 
is  the  Lord's,  and  the  fulness  thereof,"  —  are  examples 
of  such  uses.  In  former  times,  it  was  a  real  and  not 
an  imaginary  fear,  that  the  wars  of  the  Lord  in  the 
Old  Testament  might  arouse  a  fire  in  the  bosom  of 
Franks  and  Huns.  In  our  own  day,  such  dangers 
have  passed  away :  it  is  only  a  figure  of  speech  when 
the  preacher  says,  "  Gird  on  thy  sword,  0  thou  most 
mighty ! "  The  warlike  passions  of  men  are  not  roused 
by  quotations  from  Scripture ;  nor  can  states  of  life 
such  as  slavery  or  polygamy,  which  belong  to  a  past 
age,  be  defended,  at  least  in  England,  by  the  example 
of  the  Old  Testament.  The  danger  or  error  is  of 
another  kind  ;  more  subtle,  but  hardly  less  real.  For, 
if  we  are  permitted  to  apply  Scripture  under  the 
pretence  of  interpreting  it,  the  language  of  Scrip- 
ture becomes  only  a  mode  of  expressing  the  public 
feeling  or  opinion  of  our  own  day.  Any  passing 
phase  of  politics  or  art,  or  spurious  philanthropy,  may 
have  a  kind  of  scriptural  authority.  The  words  that 
are  used  are  the  words  of  the  prophet  or  evangelist ; 
but  we  stand  behind,  and  adapt  them  to  our  pur- 
pose. Hence  it  is  necessary  to  consider  the  limits 
and  manner  of  a  just  adaptation  ;  how  much  may  be 
allowed  for  the  sake  of  ornament ;  how  far  the  Scrip- 
ture in  all  its  details,  may  be  regarded  as  an  allegory 
of  human  life  ;  where  the  true  analogy  begins ;  how 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE.  451 

far  the  interpretation  of  Scripture  will  serve  as  a  cor- 
rective to  its  practical  abuse. 

Truth  seems  to  require  that  we  should  separate 
mere  adaptations  from  the  original  meaning  of  Scrip- 
ture. It  is  not  honest  or  reasonable  to  confound  illus- 
tration with  argument,  in  theology,  any  more  than  in 
other  subjects.  For  example,  if  a  preacher  chooses 
to  represent  the  condition  of  a  church  or  of  an  indi- 
vidual in  the  present  day  under  the  figure  of  Elijah 
left  alone  among  the  idolatrous  tribes  of  Israel,  such 
an  allusion  is  natural  enough  ;  but  if  he  goes  on  to 
argue  that  individuals  are  therefore  justified  in  re- 
maining in  what  they  believe  to  be  an  erroneous 
communion,  —  that  is  a  mere  appearance  of  argument 
which  ought  not  to  have  the  slightest  weight  with  a 
man  of  sense.  Such  a  course  may  indeed  be  perfectly 
justifiable,  but  not  on  the  ground  that  a  prophet  of  the 
Lord  once  did  so,  two  thousand  five  hundred  years 
ago.  Not  in  this  sense  were  the  lives  of  the  prophets 
written  for  our  instruction.  There  are  many  impor- 
tant morals  conveyed  by  them,  but  only  so  far  as  they 
themselves  represent  universal  principles  of  justice 
and  love.  These  universal  principles  they  clothe  with 
flesh  and  blood  :  they  show  them  to  us  written  on  the 
hearts  of  men  of  like  passions  with  ourselves.  The 
prophecies,  again,  admit  of  many  applications  to  the 
Christian  Church  or  to  the  Christian  life.  There  is 
no  harm  in  speaking  of  the  Church  as  the  spiritual 
Israel,  or  in  using  the  imagery  of  Isaiah  respecting 
Messiah's  kingdom,  as  the  type  of  good  things  to 
come.  But  when  it  is  gravely  urged,  that,  from  such 
passages  as  "  Kings  shall  be  thy  nursing  fathers,"  we 
are  to  collect  the  relations  of  Church  and  State  ;  or, 
from  the  pictorial, description  of  Isaiah,  that  it  is  to  be 


452  ON  THE  INTERPEETATION   OF  SCRIPTURE. 

inferred  there  will  be  a  reign  of  Christ  on  earth, — 
that  is  a  mere  assumption  of  the  forms  of  reasoning 
by  the  imagination.  Nor  is  it  a  healthful  or  manly  tone 
of  feeling  which  depicts  the  political  opposition  to  the 
Church  in  our  own  day,  under  imagery  which  is  bor- 
rowed from  the  desolate  Sion  of  the  captivity.  Scrip- 
ture is  apt  to  come  too  readily  to  the  lips,  when  we 
are  pouring  out  our  own  weaknesses,  or  enlarging  on 
some  favorite  theme,  —  perhaps  idealizing,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  prophecy,  the  feebleness  of  preaching  or 
missions  in  the  present  day,  or  from  the  want  of  some- 
thing else  to  say.  In  many  discussions  on  these  and 
similar  subjects,  the  position  of  the  Jewish  king, 
church,  priest,  has  led  to  a  confusion,  partly  caused 
by  the  use  of  similar  words  in  modern  senses  among 
ourselves.  The  King  or  Queen  of  England  may  be 
called  the  Anointed  of  the  Lord  ;  but  we  should  not 
therefore  imply  that  the  attributes  of  sovereignty  are 
the  same  as  those  which  belonged  to  King  David.  All 
these  are  figures  of  speech,  the  employment  of  which 
is  too  common,  and  has  been  injurious  to  religion,  be- 
cause it  prevents  our  looking  at  the  facts  of  history 
or  life  as  they  truly  are. 

This  is  the  first  step  towards  a  more  truthful  use 
of  Scripture  in  practice,  —  the  separation  of  adapta- 
tion from  interpretation.  No  one,  who  is  engaged  in 
preaching  or  in  religious  instruction,  can  be  required 
to  give  up  Scripture  language  :  it  is  the  common 
element  in  which  his  thoughts  and  those  of  his 
hearers  move.  But  he  may  be  asked  to  distinguish 
the  words  of  Scripture  from  the  truths  of  Scripture, 
—  the  means  from  the  end.  The  least  expression 
of  Scripture  is  weighty  :  it  affects  the  minds  of  the 
hearers  in  a  way  that  no  other  language  can.     What- 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  453 

ever  responsibility  attaches  to  idle  words,  attaches  in 
still  greater  degree  to  the  idle  or  fallacious  use  of 
Scripture  terms.  And  there  is  surely  a  want  of  proper 
reverence  for  Scripture,  when  we  confound  the  weak- 
est and  feeblest  applications  of  its  words  with  their  true 
meaning  ;  when  we  avail  ourselves  of  their  natural 
power  to  point  them  against  some  enemy ;  when  we 
divert  the  eternal  words  of  charity  and  truth  into  a 
defence  of  some  passing  opinion.  For  not  only  in  the 
days  of  the  Pharisees,  but  in  our  own,  the  letter  has 
been  taking  the  place  of  the  spirit ;  the  least  matters, 
of  the  greatest ;  and  the  primary  meaning  has  been 
lost  in  the  secondary  use. 

Other  simple  cautions  may  also  be  added.  The  ap- 
plications of  Scripture  should  be  harmonized,  and, 
as  it  were,  interpenetrated  with  the  spirit  of  the 
gospel,  the  whole  of  which  should  be  in  every  part  : 
though  the  words  may  receive  a  new  sense,  the  new 
sense  ought  to  be  in  agreement  with  the  general 
truth.  They  should  be  used  to  bring  home  practical 
precepts,  not  to  send  the  imagination  on  a  voyage 
of  discovery :  they  are  not  the  real  foundation  of  our 
faith  in  another  world  ;  nor  can  they,  by  pleasant 
pictures,  add  to  our  knowledge  of  it.  They  should 
not  confound  the  accidents  with  the  essence  of  re- 
ligion ;  the  restrictions  and  burdens  of  the  Jewish 
law  with  the  freedom  of  the  gospel ;  the  things 
which  Moses  allowed  for  the  hardness  of  the  heart, 
with  the  perfection  of  the  teaching  of  Christ.  They 
should  avoid  the  form  of  arguments,  or  they  will  in- 
sensibly be  used  or  understood  to  mean  more  than 
they  really  do.  They  should  be  subjected  to  an 
overruling  principle,  which  is  the  heart  and  con- 
science of  the  Christian  teacher,  who  indeed  "  stands 


454  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF  SCRIPTURE. 

behind  them,"  not  to  make  them  the  vehicles  of  his 
own  opinions,  but  as  the  expressions  of  justice  and 
truth  and  love. 

•  And  here  the  critical  interpretation  of  Scripture 
comes  in,  and  exercises  a  corrective  influence  on  its 
popular  use.  We  have  already  admitted  that  criticism 
is  not  for  the  multitude  :  it  is  not  what  the  Scripture 
terms  the  gospel  preached  for  the  poor.  Yet,  indi- 
rectly passing  from  the  few  to  the  many,  it  has  borne 
a  great  part  in  the  Reformation  of  religion.  It  has 
cleared  the  eye  of  the  mind  to  understand  the  original 
meaning.  It  was  a  sort  of  criticism  which  supported 
the  struggle  of  the  sixteenth  century  against  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  Church :  it  is  criticism  that  is  leading 
Protestants  to  doubt  whether  the  doctrine  that  the 
Pope  is  Antichrist,  which  has  descended  from  the 
same  period,  is  really  discoverable  in  Scripture. 
Even  the  isolated  thinker,  against  whom  the  relig- 
ious world  is  taking  up  arms,  has  an  influence  on 
his  opponents.  The  force  of  observations  which  are 
based  on  reason  and  fact  remains  when  the  tide  of 
religious  or  party  feeling  is  gone  down.  Criticism  has 
also  a  healing  influence  in  clearing  away  what  may  be 
termed  the  sectarianism  of  knowledge.  Without  crit- 
icism, it  would  be  impossible  to  reconcile  history  and 
science  with  revealed  religion  :  they  must  remain  for- 
ever in  a  hostile  and  defiant  attitude.  Instead  of  be- 
ing, like  other  records,  subject  to  the  conditions  of 
knowledge  which  existed  in  an  early  stage  of  the 
world.  Scripture  would  be  regarded,  on  tlie  one  side, 
as  the  work  of  organic  inspiration  ;  and  as  a  lying 
imposition,  on  the  other. 

The  real  unity  of  Scripture,  as  of  man,  has  also 
a  relation   to    our  present   subject.      Amid   all  the 


ON  THE  INTERPEETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  455 

differences  of  modes  of  thought  and  speech  which 
have  existed  in  different  ages,  of  which  much  is  said 
in  our  own  day,  there  is  a  common  element  in  human 
nature  which  bursts  through  these  differences,  and 
remains  unchanged,  because  akin  to  tlie  first  instincts 
of  our  being.  The  simple  feeling  of  truth  and  right 
is  the  same  to  the  Greek  or  Hindoo  as  to  ourselves. 
However  great  may  be  the  diversities  of  human  char- 
acter, there  is  a  point  at  which  these  diversities  end, 
and  unity  begins  to  appear.  Now,  this  admits  of  an 
application  to  the  books  of  Scripture,  as  well  as  to  the 
world  generally.  Written  at  many  different  times,  in 
more  than  one  language,  some  of  them  in  fragments, 
they,  too,  have  a  common  element,  of  which  the 
preacher  may  avail  himself.  This  element  is  twofold, 
—  partly  divine,  and  partly  human  ;  the  revelation 
of  the  truth  and  righteousness  of  God,  and  the  cry 
of  the  human  heart  towards  him.  Every  part  of 
Scripture  tends  to  raise  us  above  ourselves,  —  to  give 
us  a  deeper  sense  of  the  feebleness  of  man,  and  of  the 
wisdom  and  power  of  God.  It  has  a  sort  of  kindred, 
as  Plato  would  say,  with  religious  truth  everywhere  in 
the  world.  It  agrees  also  with  the  imperfect  stages 
of  knowledge  and  faith  in  human  nature,  and  answers 
to  its  inarticulate  cries.  The  universal  truth  easily 
breaks  through  the  accidents  of  time  and  place  in 
which  it  is  involved.  Although  we  cannot  apply 
Jemsh  institutions  to  the  Christian  world,  or  venture, 
in  reliance  on  some  text,  to  resist  the  tide  of  civiliza- 
tion on  which  we  are  borne,  yet  it  remains  neverthe- 
less to  us,  as  well  as  to  the  Jews  and  first  Christians, 
that  "righteousness  exalteth  a  nation,"  and  that  "  love 
is  the  fulfilling,  not  of  the  Jewish  law  only,  but  of  all 
law." 


456  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

In  some  cases,  we  have  only  to  enlarge  the  mean- 
ing of  Scripture  to  apply  it  even  to  the  novelties  and 
peculiarities  of  our  own  times.     The  world  changes  ; 
but  the  human  heart  remains  the  same  :  events  and 
details  are  different ;  but  the  principle  by  which  they 
are  governed,  or  the  rule  by  which  we  are  to  act,  is 
not  different.     When,  for  example,  our  Saviour  says, 
"  Ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make 
you  free,"  it  is  not  likely  that  these  words  would  have 
conveyed  to  the  minds  of  the  Jews  who  heard  him 
any  notion  of  the  perplexities  of  doubt  or  inquiry  ; 
yet  we  cannot  suppose  that  our  Saviour,  were  he  to 
come  again  upon  earth,  would  refuse  thus  to  extend 
them.     The   Apostle  St.  Paul,  when  describing  the 
gospel,  which  is  to  the  Greek  foolishness,  speaks  also 
'of  a  higher  wisdom  which  is  known  to  those  who 
arc  perfect.     Neither  is  it  unfair  for  us  to  apply  this 
passage  to  that  reconcilement  of  faith  and  knowledge 
which  may  be  termed   Christian   philosophy,  as   the 
nearest  equivalent  to  its  language  in  our  own  day. 
Such  words,  again,  as  "  Why  seek  ye  the  living  among 
the  dead  ?  "  admit  of  a  great  variety  of  adaptations  to 
the  circumstances  of  our  own  time.     Many  of  these 
adaptations  have  a  real  germ  in  tlie  meaning  of  the 
words.     The  precept,  "  Render  unto  Caesar  the  things 
that  are   Caesar's,  and   to   God   the   things   that   are 
God's,"  may  be   taken   generally  as   expressing  the 
necessity  of  distinguishing  the  divine  and  human, — 
the  things  that  belong  to  faith,  and  the  things  that 
belong  to  experience.     It  is  worth  remarking,  in  the 
application  made  of  these  words  by  Lord  Bacon  ("Da 
fidei   quae   fidei   sunt  "),   that,   although    the    terms 
are    altered,   yet    the    circumstance    that    the    form 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF  SCRIPTURE.  457 

of  the  sentence  is  borrowed  from  Scripture  gives  them 
point  and  weight. 

The  portion  of  Scripture  which,  more  than  any 
other,  is  immediately  and  universally  applicable  to 
our  own  times,  is  doubtless  that  which  is  contained 
in  the  words  of  Christ  himself.  The  reason  is,  that 
they  are  words  of  the  most  universal  import.  They 
do  not  relate  to  the  circumstances  of  the  time,  but  to 
the  common  life  of  all  mankind.  You  cannot  extract 
from  them  a  political  creed ;  only,  "  Render  unto 
Caesar  the  things  that  are  Cesar's,"  and  "  The  scribes 
and  Pharisees  sit  in  Moses'  seat :  whatsoever,  there- 
fore, they  say  unto  you,  do  ;  but  after  their  works  do 
not."  They  present  to  us  a  standard  of  truth  and 
duty,  such  as  no  one  can  at  once  and  immediately 
practise  ;  such  as,  in  its  perfection,  no  one  has  fulfilled 
in  this  world.  But  this  idealism  does  not  interfere 
with  their  influence  as  a  religious  lesson.  Ideals, 
even  though  unrealized,  have  effect  on  our  daily  life. 
The  preacher  of  the  gospel  is,  or  ought  to  be,  aware 
that  his  calls  to  repentance,  his  standard  of  obliga- 
tions, his  lamentations  over  his  own  shortcomings  or 
those  of  others,  do  not  at  once  convert  hundreds  or 
thousands,  as  on  the  day  of  Pentecost.  Yet  it  does 
not  follow  that  they  are  thrown  away,  or  that  it  would 
be  well  to  substitute  for  them  mere  prudential  or 
economical  lessons,  lectures  on  health  or  sanitary 
improvement ;  for  they  tend  to  raise  men  above  them- 
selves, —  providing  them  with  sabbaths  as  well  as 
working-days,  giving  them  a  taste  of  "  the  good  word 
of  God  "  and  of"  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come." 
Human  nature  needs  to  be  idealized :  it  seems  as  if  it 
took  a  dislike  to  itself  when  presented  always  in  its 
20 


458  ON   THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

ordinary  attire ;  it  lives  on  in  the  hope  of  becoming 
better.  And  the  image  or  hope  of  a  better  life, — 
the  vision  of  Christ  crucified,  —  which  is  held  up  to 
it,  doubtless  has  an  influence ;  not  like  the  rushing 
mighty  wind  of  the  day  of  Pentecost :  it  may  rather 
be  compared  to  the  leaven  "  which  a  woman  took  and 
hid  in  three  measures  of  meal  till  the  whole  was 
leavened." 

The  parables  of  our  Lord  are  a  portion  of  the  New 
Testament,  which  we  may  apply  in  the  most  easy  and 
literal  manner.  The  persons  in  them  are  the  persons 
among  whom  we  live  and  move.  There  are  times  and 
occasions  at  which  the  truths  symbolized  by  them 
come  home  to  the  hearts  of  all  who  have  ever  been 
impressed  by  religion.  We  have  been  prodigal  sons 
returning  to  our  Father ;  servants  to  whom  talents 
have  been  intrusted  ;  laborers  in  the  vineyard,  inclined 
to  murmur  at  our  lot  when  compared  with  that  of 
others,  yet  receiving  every  man  his  due  ;  well-satisfied 
Pharisees  ;  repentant  publicans  :  we  have  received  the 
seed,  and  the  cares  of  the  world  have  choked  it ; 
we  hope  also  at  times  that  we  have  found  the  pearl  of 
great  price  after  sweeping  the  house  ;  we  are  ready, 
like  the  good  Samaritan,  to  show  kindness  to  all  man- 
kind. Of  these  circumstances  of  life,  or  phases  of 
mind,  which  are  typified  by  the  parables,  most  Chris- 
tians have  experience.  We  may  go  on  to  apply 
many  of  them  further  to  the  condition  of  nations  and 
churches.  Such  a  treasury  has  Christ  provided  us  of 
things  new  and  old,  which  refer  to  all  time  and  all 
mankind  —  may  we  not  say  in  his  own  words?  — 
^'  because  he  is  the  Son  of  man." 

There  is  no  language  of  Scripture  which  penetrates 
the  individual  soul,  and  embraces  all  the  world  in  the 


ON   THE   INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  459 

arms  of  its  love,  in  the  same  manner  as  that  of  Christ 
himself.  Yet  the  Epistles  contain  lessons  which  are 
not  found  in  the  Gospels,  or,  at  least,  not  expressed 
with  the  same  degree  of  clearness.  For  the  Epistles 
are  nearer  to  actual  life  ;  they  relate  to  the  circum- 
stances of  the  first  believers,  to  their  struggles  with 
the  world  without,  to  their  temptations  and  divisions 
from  within  :  their  subject  is  not  only  the  doctrine 
of  the  Christian  religion,  but  the  business  of  the  early 
Church.  And  although  their  circumstances  are  not 
our  circumstances,  —  we  are  not  afflicted  or  persecuted, 
or  driven  out  of  tlie  world,  but  in  possession  of  the 
blessings  and  security  and  property  of  an  established 
religion,  —  yet  there  is  a  Christian  spirit  which  infuses 
itself  into  all  circumstances,  of  which  they  are  a  pure 
and  living  source.  It  is  impossible  to  gather  from  a 
few  fragmentary  and  apparently  not  always  consistent 
expressions  how  the  communion  was  celebrated,  or 
the  Church  ordered ;  what  was  the  relative  position 
of  presbyters  and  deacons,  or  the  nature  of  the  gift 
of  tongues,  as  a  rule  for  the  Church  in  after-ages. 
Such  inquiries  have  no  certain  answer,  and,  at  the 
best,  are  only  the  subjects  of  honest  curiosity.  But 
the  words,  "  Charity  never  faileth,"  and  "  Though  I 
speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and  of  angels,  and 
have  not  charity,  I  am  nothing,"  — these  have  a  voice 
which  reaches  to  the  end  of  time.  There  are  no 
questions  of  meats  and  drinks  now-a-days ;  yet  the 
noble  words  of  the  apostle  remain :  "  If  meat  make 
my  brother  to  offend,  I  will  eat  no  flesh  while  the 
world  standeth,  lest  I  make  my  brother  to  offend." 
Moderation  in  controversy,  toleration  towards  oppo- 
nents or  erring  members,  is  a  virtue  which  has  been 
thought  by  many  to  belong  to  the  development  and 


460  ON  THE  INTERPKETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE. 

not  to  the  origin  of  Cliristiaiiitj,  and  which  is  rarely 
found  in  the  commencement  of  a  religion  ;  but  les- 
sons of  toleration  may  be  gathered  from  the  apostle, 
which  have  not  yet  been  learned  either  by  theologians 
or  by  mankind  in  general.  The  persecutions  and 
troubles  which  awaited  the  apostle,  no  longer  await 
tis :  we  cannot,  therefore,  without  unreality,  except, 
perhaps,  in  a  very  few  cases,  appropriate  his  words  : 
"  I  have  fought  the  good  fight ;  I  have  finished  my 
course  ;  I  have  kept  the  faith."  But  that  other  text 
still  sounds  gently  in  our  ears  :  "  My  strength  is  per- 
fected in  weakness  ;  "  and  "  when  I  am  weak,  then  am 
I  strong.  We  cannot  apply  to  ourselves  the  language 
of  authority  in  which  the  apostle  speaks  of  himself 
as  an  ambassador  for  Christ,  without  something  like 
bad  taste  ;  but  it  is  not  altogether  an  imaginary  hope, 
that  those  of  us  who  are  ministers  of  Christ  may 
attain  to  a  real  imitation  of  his  great  diligence,  of  his 
sympathy  with  others,  and  consideration  for  them,  — 
of  his  willingness  to  spend  and  be  spent  in  his  Mas- 
ter's service. 

Such  are  a  few  instances  of  the  manner  in  which 
the  analogy  of  faith  enables  us  to  apply  the  words  of 
Christ  and  his  apostles,  with  a  strict  regard  to  their 
original  meaning.  But  the  Old  Testament  has  also 
its  peculiar  lessons,  which  are  not  conveyed  with 
equal  point  or  force  in  the  New.  The  beginnings  of 
human  history  are  themselves  a  lesson,  having  a  fresh- 
ness as  of  the  early  dawn.  There  are  forms  of  evil 
against  which  the  prophets  and  the  prophetical  spirit 
of  the  law  carry  on  a  warfare,  in  terms  almost  too 
bold  for  the  way  of  life  of  modern  times.  There, 
more  plainly  than  in  any  other  portion  of  Scripture, 
is  expressed  the  antagonism  of  outward  and  inward,  of 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  461 

ceremonial  and  moral,  of  mercy  and  sacrifice.  There 
all  the  masks  of  hypocrisy  are  rudely  torn  asunder, 
in  which  an  unthinking  world  allows  itself  to  be  dis- 
guised. There  the  relations  of  rich  and  poor  in  the 
sight  of  God,  and  their  duties  towards  one  another, 
are  most  clearly  enunciated.  There  the  religion  of 
suffering  first  appears,  —  *'  adversity,  the  blessing  " 
of  the  Old  Testament  as  well  as  of  the  New.  There 
the  sorrows  and  aspirations  of  the  soul  find  their 
deepest  expression  and  also  their  consolation.  The 
feeble  person  has  an  image  of  himself  in  the  "  bruised 
reed ; "  the  suffering  servant  of  God  passes  into  the 
"beloved  one,  in  whom  my  soul  delighteth."  Even 
the  latest  and  most  desolate  phases  of  the  human  mind 
are  reflected  in  Job  and  Ecclesiastes  ;  yet  not  without 
the  solemn  assertion,  that  "  to  fear  God  and  keep  his 
commandments  "  is  the  beginning  and  end  of  all 
things. 

It  is  true  that  there  are  examples  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment which  were  not  written  for  our  instruction  ;  and 
that,  in  some  instances,  precepts  or  commands  are 
attributed  to  God  himself,  which  must  be  regarded  as 
relative  to  the  state  of  knowledge  which  then  existed 
of  the  divine  nature,  or  given  "  for  the  hardness  of 
men's  hearts."  It  cannot  be  denied  that  such  passages 
of  Scripture  are  liable  to  misunderstanding :  the  spirit 
of  the  Old  Covenanters,  although  no  longer  appealing 
to  the  action  of  Samuel,  "  hewing  Agag  in  pieces 
before  the  Lord  in  Gilgal,"  is  not  altogether  extin- 
guished ;  and  a  community  of  recent  origin  in  Amer- 
ica found  their  doctrines  of  polygamy  on  the  Old 
Testament.  But  the  poor  generally  read  the  Bible 
unconsciously :  they  take  the  good,  and  catch  the 
prevailing  spirit,  without  stopping  to  reason  whether 


462  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

this  or  that  practice  is  sanctioned  by  the  custom  or 
example  of  Scripture.  The  child  is  only  struck  by 
the  impiety  of  the  children  who  mocked  the  prophet  : 
he  does  not  tliink  of  the  severity  of  the  punishment 
which  is  inflicted  on  them.  And  the  poor,  in  this 
respect,  are  much  like  children  :  their  reflection  on 
the  moraUty  or  immorality  of  characters  or  events  is 
suppressed  by  reverence  for  Scripture.  The  Chris- 
tian teacher  has  a  sort  of  tact  by  which  he  guides 
them  to  perceive  only  the  spirit  of  the  gospel  every- 
where :  they  read,  in  the  Psalms,  of  David's  sin  and 
repentance  ;  of  the  never-failing  goodness  of  God  to 
him,  and  his  never-failing  trust  in  him  ;  not  of  his 
imprecations  against  his  enemies.  Such  difficulties 
are  greater  in  theory  and  on  paper  than  in  the  man- 
agement of  a  school  or  parish.  They  are  found  to 
affect  the  half-educated,  rather  than  either  the  poor, 
or  those  who  are  educated  in  a  higher  sense.  To  be 
above  such  difficulties  is  the  happiest  condition  of 
human  life  and  knowledge,  or  to  be  below  them  ;  to 
see,  or  think  we  see,  how  they  may  be  reconciled  with 
divine  power  and  wisdom,  or  not  to  see  how  they  are 
apparently  at  variance  with  them. 

§6. 

Some  application  of  the  preceding  subject  may  be 
further  made  to  theology  and  life. 

Let  us  introduce  this  concluding  inquiry  with  two 
remarks  :  — 

I.  It  may  be  observed,  that  a  change  in  some  of  the 
prevailing  modes  of  interpretation  is  not  so  much  a 
matter  of  expediency  as  of  necessity.  The  original 
meaning  of  Scripture  is  beginning  to  be  clearly  under- 
stood ;  but  the  apprehension  of  the  original  meaning 
is  inconsistent  with  the  reception  of  a  typical  or  con- 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  463 

veiitional  one.  The  time  will  come  when  educated 
men  will  be  no  more  able  to  believe  that  the  words, 
"  Out  of  Egypt  have  I  called  my  son"  (Matt.  ii.  15 ; 
Hos.  xi.  1),  were  intended  by  the  prophet  to  refer 
to  the  return  of  Joseph  and  Mary  from  Egypt,  than 
they  are  now  able  to  believe  the  Roman  Catholic  ex- 
planation of  Gen.  iii.  15,  "  Ipsa  conteret  caput  tuum." 
They  will  no  more  think  that  the  first  chapters  of 
Genesis  relate  the  same  tale  which  geology  and  eth- 
nology unfold,  than  they  now  think  the  meaning  of 
Josh.  X.  12,  13,  to  be  in  accordance  with  Galileo's 
discovery. 

From  the  circumstance,  that  in  former  ages  there 
has  been  a  fourfold  or  a  sevenfold  interpretation  of 
Scripture,  we  cannot  argue  to  the  possibility  of  up- 
holding any  other  than  the  original  one  in  our  own. 
The  mystical  explanations  of  Origen  or  Philo  were 
not  seen  to  be  mystical ;  the  reasonings  of  Aquinas 
and  Calvin  were  not  supposed  to  go  beyond  the  letter 
of  the  text.  They  have  now  become  the  subject  of 
apology :  it  is  justly  said,  that  we  should  not  judge 
the  greatness  of  the  Fathers  or  Reformers  by  their 
suitableness  to  our  own  day.  But  this  defence  of 
them  shows  that  their  explanations  of  Scripture  are 
no  longer  tenable  :  they  belong  to  a  way  of  thinking 
and  speaking  which  was  once  diffused  over  the  world, 
but  has  now  passed  away.  And  what  we  give  up  as 
a  general  principle,  we  shall  find  it  impossible  to 
maintain  partially,  —  e.  g.  in  the  types  of  the  Mosaic 
law  and  the  double  meanings  of  prophecy  ;  at  least,  in 
any  sense  in  which  it  is  not  equally  applicable  to  all 
deep  and  suggestive  writings. 

The  same  observation  may  be  applied  to  the  histor- 
ical criticism  of  Scripture.     From  the  fact  that  Paley 


464  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

or  Butler  were  regarded  in  their  generation  as  sup- 
pljang  a  triumphant  answer  to  the  enemies  of  Scrip- 
ture, we  cannot  argue  that  their  answer  will  be  satis- 
factory to  those  who  inquire  into  such  subjects  in  our 
own.  Criticism  has  far  more  power  than  it  formerly 
had  :  it  has  spread  itself  over  ancient,  and  even  mod- 
ern history  ;  it  extends  to  the  thoughts  and  ideas  of 
men  as  well  as  to  words  and  facts  ;  it  has  also  a  great 
place  in  education.  Whether  the  habit  of  mind  which 
has  been  formed  in  classical  studies  will  not  go  on  to 
Scripture  ;  whether  Scripture  can  be  made  an  excep- 
tion to  other  ancient  writings,  now  that  the  nature  of 
both  is  more  understood  ;  whether,  in  the  fuller  light 
of  history  and  science,  the  views  of  the  last  century 
will  hold  out,  —  these  are  questions  respecting  which 
the  course  of  religious  opinion  in  the  past  does  not 
afford  the  means  of  truly  judging. 

II.  It  has  to  be  considered  whether  the  intellectual 
forms  imder  which  Christianity  has  been  described 
may  not  also  be  in  a  state  of  transition  and  resolution  ; 
in  this  respect  contrasting  with  the  never-changing 
truth  of  the  Christian  life.  (1  Cor.  xiii.  8.)  Looking 
backwards  at  past  ages,  we  experience  a  kind  of 
amazement  at  the  minuteness  of  theological  distinc- 
tions, and  also  at  their  permanence.  They  seem  to 
have  borne  a  part  in  the  education  of  the  Christian 
world,  in  an  age  when  language  itself  had  also  a 
greater  influence  than  now-a-days.  It  is  admitted 
that  these  distinctions  are  not  observed  in  the  New 
Testament ;  and  are,  for  the  most  part,  of  a  later 
growth.  But  little  is  gained  by  setting  up  theology 
against  Scripture,  or  Scripture  against  theology  ;  the 
Bible  against  the  Church,  or  the  Church  against 
the  Bible.     At  different   periods,  either  has  been  a 


ON  THE  DsTEEPRETATION  OF  SCRIPTUEE.     465 

bulwark  against  some  form  of  error ;  either  has  tended 
to  correct  the  abuse  of  the  other.  A  true  inspiration 
guarded  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament  from  Gnos- 
tic or  Manichean  tenets  :  at  a  later  stage,  a  sound 
instinct  prevented  the  Church  from  dividing  the  hu- 
manity and  divinity  of  Christ.  It  may  be  said  that 
the  spirit  of  Christ  forbids  us  to  determine  beyond 
what  is  written  ;  and  the  decision  of  the  Council  of 
Nicaga  has  been  described  by  an  eminent  English  prel- 
ate as  "  the  greatest  misfortune  that  ever  befell  the 
Christian  world."  That  is,  perhaps,  true  ;  yet  a  dif- 
ferent decision  would  have  been  a  greater  misfortune. 
Nor  does  there  seem  any  reason  to  suppose  that  the 
human  mind  could  have  been  arrested  in  its  theologi- 
cal course.  It  is  a  mistake  to  imagine  that  the  divid- 
ing and  splitting  of  words  is  owing  to  the  depravity 
of  the  human  heart :  was  it  not  rather  an  intellectual 
movement  (the  only  phenomenon  of  progress  then  go- 
ing on  among  men),  which  led,  by  a  sort  of  necessity, 
some  to  go  forward  to  the  completion  of  the  system, 
while  it  left  others  to  stand  aside  ?  A  veil  was  on  the 
human  understanding  in  the  great  controversies  which 
absorbed  the  Church  in  earlier  ages :  the  cloud  which 
the  combatants  themselves  raised  intercepted  the  view. 
They  did  not  see,  they  could  not  have  imagined,  that 
there  was  a  world  which  lay  beyond  the  range  of  the 
controversy. 

And  now,  as  the  interpretation  of  Scripture  is  re- 
ceiving another  character,  it  seems  that  distinctions 
of  theology,  which  were,  in  great  measure,  based  on 
old  interpretations,  are  beginning  to  fade  away.  A 
change  is  observable  in  the  manner  in  which  doctrines 
are  stated  and  defended :  it  is  no  longer  held  sufficient 
to  rest  them  on  texts  of  Scripture,  one,  two,  or  more, 
20*  DD 


466  ON   THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

which  contain,  or  appear  to  contain,  similar  words  or 
ideas.  They  are  connected  more  closely  with  our 
moral  nature  :  extreme  consequences  are  shunned  ; 
large  allowances  are  made  for  the  ignorance  of  man- 
kind. It  is  held  that  there  is  truth  on  both  sides  ; 
about  many  questions  there  is  a  kind  of  union  of  oppo- 
sites ;  others  are  admitted  to  have  been  verbal  only  ; 
all  are  regarded  in  the  light  which  is  thrown  upon 
them  by  church  history  and  religious  experience.  A 
theory  has  lately  been  put  forward,  apparently  as  a 
defence  of  the  Christian  faith,  which  denies  the  objec- 
tive character  of  any  of  them.  And  there  are  other 
signs  that  times  are  changing,  and  we  are  changing 
too.  It  would  be  scarcely  possible,  at  present,  to  re- 
vive the  interest  which  was  felt  less  than  twenty  years 
ago  in  the  doctrine  of  Baptismal  Regeneration  ;  nor 
would  the  arguments  by  which  it  was  supported  or  im- 
pugned have  the  meaning  which  they  once  had.  The 
communion  of  the  Lord's  Supper  is  also  ceasing,  at 
least  in  the  Church  of  England,  to  be  a  focus  or  cen- 
tre of  disunion,  — 

"  Our  greatest  love  turned  to  our  greatest  hate." 

A  silence  is  observable  on  some  other  points  of  doc- 
trine around  which  controversies  swarmed  a  genera- 
tion ago.  Persons  begin  to  ask  what  was  the  real 
difference  which  divided  the  two  parties.  They  are 
no  longer  within  the  magic  circle,  but  are  taking  up 
a  position  external  to  it.  They  have  arrived  at  an 
age  of  reflection,  and  begin  to  speculate  on  the  action 
and  reaction,  the  irritation  and  counter-irritation  of 
religious  forces.  It  is  a  common  observation,  that 
"  revivals  are  not  permanent :  "  the  movement  is  crit- 
icised even  by  those  who  are  subject  to  its  influence. 


ON  THE  INTERPEETATION   OF  SCRIPTURE.  467 

In  tlie  present  state  of  the  human  mind,  any  consid- 
eration of  these  subjects,  whether  from  the  highest  or 
lowest  or  most  moderate  point  of  view,  is  unfavorable 
to  the  stability  of  dogmatical  systems,  because  it  rouses 
inquiry  into  the  meaning  of  words.  To  the  sense  of 
this  is  probably  to  be  attributed  the  reserve  on  matters 
of  doctrine  and  controversy  which  characterizes  the 
present  day,  compared  with  the  theological  activity  of 
twenty  years  ago. 

These  reflections  bring  us  back  to  the  question  with 
which  we  began  :  "  What  effect  will  the  critical  inter- 
pretation of  Scripture  have  on  theology  and  on  life  ?  " 
Their  tendency  is  to  show  that  the  result  is  beyond 
our  control,  and  that  the  world  is  not  unprepared  for 
it.  More  things  than  at  first  sight  appear  are  moving 
towards  the  same  end.  Eeligion  often  bids  us  think  of 
ourselves,  especially  in  later  life,  as  each  one  in  his 
appointed  place,  carrying  on  a  work  which  is  fashioned 
within  by  unseen  hands.  The  theologian,  too,  may 
have  peace  in  the  thought,  that  he  is  subject  to  the 
conditions  of  his  age,  rather  than  one  of  its  moving 
powers.  When  he  hears  theological  inquiry  censured 
as  tending  to  create  doubt  and  confusion,  he  knows 
very  well  that  the  cause  of  this  is  not  to  be  sought  in 
the  writings  of  so-called  rationalists  or  critics  who  are 
disliked  partly  because  they  unveil  the  age  to  itself, 
but  in  the  opposition  of  reason  and  feeling,  of  the  past 
and  the  present,  in  the  conflict  between  the  Calvin- 
istic  tendencies  of  an  elder  generation,  and  the  in- 
fluences which  even  in  the  same  family  naturally  aflect 
the  young. 

This  distraction  of  the  human  mind  between  ad- 
verse influences  and  associations  is  a  fact  which  we 
should  have  to  accept,  and  make  the  best  of,  whatever 


468  ON  THE  rNTERPKETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

consequences  might  seem  to  follow  to  individuals  or 
churches.  It  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  a  merely  Hea- 
then notion,  that  "  truth  is  to  be  desired  for  its  own 
sake,  even  though  no  ''  good  "  result  from  it."  As  a 
Christian  paradox,  it  may  be  said,  "  What  hast  thou 
to  do  with  '  good  '  ?  follow  thou  Me."  But  the  Chris- 
tian revelation  does  not  require  of  us  this  Stoicism  in 
most  cases :  it  rather  shows  how  good  and  truth  are 
generally  coincident.  Even  in  this  life,  there  are 
numberless  links  which  unite  moral  good  with  intel- 
lectual truth.  It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say,  that  the 
one  is  but  a  narrower  form  of  the  other.  Truth  is  to 
the  world  what  holiness  of  life  is  to  the  individual,  — • 
to  man  collectively,  the  source  of  justice  and  peace 
and  good. 

There  are  many  ways  in  which  the  connection  be- 
tween truth  and  good  may  be  traced  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  Scripture.  Is  it  a  mere  chimera,  that 
the  different  sections  of  Christendom  may  meet  on 
the  common  ground  of  the  New  Testament  ?  or  that 
the  individual  may  be  urged,  by  the  vacancy  and  un- 
profitableness of  old  traditions,  to  make  the  gospel  his 
own,  —  a  life  of  Christ  in  the  soul,  instead  of  a  the- 
ory of  Christ  which  is  in  a  book,  or  written  down  ? 
or  that,  in  missions  to  the  Heathen,  Scripture  may 
become  the  expression  of  universal  truths,  rather  than 
of  the  tenets  of  particular  men  or  churches  ?  That 
would  remove  many  obstacles  to  the  reception  of 
Christianity.  Or  that  the  study  of  Scripture  may 
have  a  more  important  place  in  a  liberal  education 
than  hitherto  ?  or  that  the  "  rational  service  "  of  inter- 
preting Scripture  may  dry  up  the  crude  and  dreamy 
vapors  of  religious  excitement  ?  or  that,  in  preach- 
ing, new  sources  of  spiritual  health  may  flow  from  a 


ON   THE   INTERPEETATION   OF   SCRIPTURK  469 

more  natural  use  of  Scripture  ?  or  that  the  lessons 
of  Scripture  may  have  a  nearer  way  to  the  hearts 
of  the  poor,  when  disengaged  from  theological  for- 
mulas ?  Let  us  consider  more  at  length  some  of  these 
topics. 

I.  No  one,  casting  his  eye  over  the  map  of  the 
Christian  world,  can  desire  that  the  present  lines  of 
demarcation  should  always  remain,  any  more  than  he 
will  be  inclined  to  regard  the  division  of  Christians 
to  which  he  belongs  himself,  as,  in  a  pre-eminent  or 
exclusive  sense,  the  Church  of  Christ.  Those  lines  of 
demarcation  seem  to  be  political  rather  than  religious  : 
they  are  differences  of  nations  or  governments,  or 
ranks  of  society,  more  than  of  creeds,  or  forms  of  faith. 
The  feeling  which  gave  rise  to  them  has,  in  a  great 
measure,  passed  away  :  no  intelligent  man  seriously 
inclines  to  believe  that  salvation  is  to  be  found  only  in 
his  own  denomination.  Examples  of  this  "  sturdy 
orthodoxy,"  in  our  own  generation,  rather  provoke  a 
smile  than  arouse  serious  disapproval.  Yet  many 
experiments  show  that  these  differences  cannot  be 
made  up  by  any  formal  concordat,  or  scheme  of  union  : 
the  parties  cannot  be  brought  to  terms  ;  and,  if  they 
could,  would  cease  to  take  an  interest  in  the  question 
at  issue.  The  friction  is  too  great,  when  persons  are 
invited  to  meet  for  a  discussion  of  differences :  such 
a  process  is  like  opening  the  doors  and  windows  to 
put  out  a  slumbering  flame.  But  that  is  no  reason 
for  doubting  that  the  divisions  of  the  Christian  world 
are  beginning  to  pass  away.  The  progress  of  poHtics, 
acquaintance  with  other  countries,  the  growth  of 
knowledge  and  of  material  greatness,  changes  of  opin- 
ion in  the  Church  of  England,  the  present  position  of 
the  Roman  communion,  —  all  these  phenomena  show 


470  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE. 

that  the  ecclesiastical  state  of  the  world  is  not  destined 
to  be  perpetual.  Within  the  envious  barriers  which 
"  divide  human  nature  into  very  little  pieces  "  (Plato, 
"  Rep."  iii.  395),  a  common  sentiment  is  springing 
up,  of  religious  truth ;  the  essentials  of  Christianity 
are  contrasted  with  the  details  and  definitions  of  it ; 
good  men  of  all  religions  find  that  they  are  more 
nearly  agreed  than  heretofore.  Neither  is  it  impossi- 
ble that  this  common  feeling  may  so  prevail  over  the 
accidental  circumstances  of  Christian  communities, 
that  their  political  or  ecclesiastical  separation  may  be 
little  felt.  The  walls  which  no  adversary  has  scaled 
may  fall  down  of  themselves.  We  may  perhaps  figure 
to  ourselves  the  battle  against  error  and  moral  evil 
taking  the  place  of  one  of  sects  and  parties. 

In  this  movement,  which  we  should  see  more  clearly 
but  for  the  divisions  of  the  Christian  world  which 
partly  conceal  it,  the  critical  interpretation  of  Scrip- 
ture will  have  a  great  influence.  The  Bible  will  be 
no  longer  appealed  to  as  the  witness  of  the  opinions  of 
particular  sects,  or  of  our  own  age :  it  will  cease  to 
be  the  battle-field  of  controversies.  But,  as  its  true 
meaning  is  more  clearly  seen,  its  moral  power  will 
also  be  greater.  If  the  outward  and  inward  witness, 
instead  of  parting  into  two,  as  they  once  did,  seem 
rather  to  blend  and  coincide  in  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness, that  is  not  a  source  of  weakness,  but  of 
strength.  The  Book  itself,  which  links  together  the 
beginning  and  end  of  the  human  race,  will  not  have 
a  less  inestimable  value  because  the  Spirit  has  taken 
the  place  of  the  letter.  Its  discrepancies  of  fact, 
when  we  become  familiar  with  them,  will  seem  of 
little  consequence  in  comparison  with  the  truths  which 
it  unfolds.      That  these   truths,  instead   of  floating 


ON  THE  INTERPKETATION  OF  SCRIPTURE.  471 

down  the  stream  of  tradition  or  being  lost  in  ritual 
observances,  have  been  preserved  forever  in  a  book, 
is  one  of  the  many  blessings  which  the  Jewish  and 
Christian  revelations  have  conferred  on  the  world, — - 
a  blessing  not  the  less  real  because  it  is  not  necessary 
to  attribute  it  to  miraculous  causes. 

Again:  the  Scriptures  are  a  bond  of  union  to  the 
whole  Christian  world.  No  one  denies  their  authority ; 
and,  could  all  be  brought  to  an  intelligence  of  their 
true  meaning,  all  might  come  to  agree  in  matters  of 
religion.  That  may  seem  to  be  a  hope  deferred,  yet 
not  altogether  chimerical.  If  it  is  not  held  to  be  a 
thing  impossible  that  there  should  be  agreement  in 
the  meaning  of  Plato  or  Sophocles,  neither  is  it  to  be 
regarded  as  absurd  that  there  should  be  a  like  agree- 
ment in  the  interpretation  of  Scripture.  The  disap- 
pearance of  artificial  notions  and  systems  will  pave 
the  way  to  such  an  agreement.  The  recognition  of 
the  fact,  that  many  aspects  and  stages  of  religion  are 
found  in  Scripture  ;  that  different,  or  even  opposite, 
parties  existed  in  the  Apostolic  Church  ;  that  the  first 
teachers  of  Christianity  had  a  separate  and  individual 
mode  of  regarding  the  gospel  of  Christ;  that  any 
existing  communion  is  necessarily  much  more  unlike 
the  brotherhood  of  love  in  the  New  Testament  than 
we  are  willing  to  suppose,  —  Protestants  in  some  re- 
spects, as  much  so  as  Catholics ;  that  rival  sects  in 
our  own  day  —  Calvinists  and  Arminians  —  those  who 
maintain  and  those  who  deny  the  final  restoration  of 
man  —  may  equally  find  texts  which  seem  to  favor 
their  respective  tenets  (Mark  ix.  44-48  ;  Rom.  xi.  32), 
—  the  recognition  of  these  and  similar  facts  will  make 
us  unwilling  to  impose  any  narrow  rule  of  rehgious 


472  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

opinion  on  the  ever-varying  conditions  of  the  human 
mind  and  Christian  society. 

II.  Christian  missions  suggest  another  sphere  in 
which  a  more  enhghtened  use  of  Scripture  might 
offer  a  great  advantage  to  the  teacher.  Tlie  more 
he  is  himself  penetrated  with  the  universal  spirit  of 
Scripture,  the  more  he  will  be  able  to  resist  the  literal 
and  servile  habits  of  mind  of  Oriental  nations.  You 
cannot  transfer  English  ways  of  belief,  and  almost 
the  history  of  the  Church  of  England  itself,  as  the 
attempt  is  sometimes  made,  not  to  an  uncivilized 
people,  ready  like  children  to  receive  new  impressions, 
but  to  an  ancient  and  decaying  one,  furrowed  with 
the  lines  of  thought,  incapable  of  the  principle  of 
growth  ;  but  you  may  take  the  purer  light  or  ele- 
ment of  religion,  of  which  Christianity  is  the  expres- 
sion, and  make  it  shine  on  some  principle  in  human 
nature  which  is  the  fallen  image  of  it.  You  cannot 
give  a  people,  who  have  no  history  of  their  own,  a 
sense  of  the  importance  of  Christianity,  as  an  histor- 
ical fact ;  but  perhaps  that  very  peculiarity  of  their 
character  may  make  them  more  impressible  by  the 
truths  or  ideas  of  Christianity.  Neither  is  it  easy  to 
make  them  understand  the  growth  of  revelation  in 
successive  ages,  —  that  there  are  precepts  of  the  Old 
Testament  which  are  reversed  in  the  New,  or  that 
Moses  allowed  many  things  for  the  hardness  of  men's 
hearts.  They  are  in  one  state  of  the  world,  and  the 
missionary  who  teaches  them  is  in  another ;  and 
the  Book  through  which  they  are  taught  does  not 
altogether  coincide  with  either.  Many  difficulties 
thus  arise  which  we  are  most  likely  to  be  successful 
in  meeting,  when  we  look  them  in  the  face.     To  one 


ON  THE  INTEEPRETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE.  473 

inference  they  clearly  point,  which  is  this,  —  that  it  is 
not  the  Book  of  Scripture  which  we  should  seek  to 
give  them,  to  be  reverenced  like  the  Yedas  or  the 
Koran,  and  consecrated  in  its  words  and  letters  ;  but 
the  truth  of  the  Book,  the  mind  of  Christ  and  his 
apostles,  in  which  all  lesser  details  and  differences 
should  be  lost  and  absorbed.  We  want  to  awaken  in 
them  the  sense  that  God  is  their  Father,  and  they  his 
children  :  that  is  of  more  importance  than  any  theory 
about  the  inspiration  of  Scripture.  But,  to  teach  in 
this  sj^irit,  the  missionary  should  himself  be  able  to 
separate  the  accidents  from  the  essence  of  religion  : 
he  should  be  conscious  that  the  power  of  the  gospel 
resides,  not  in  the  particulars  of  theology,  but  in  the 
Christian  life. 

III.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  Scripture  has  ever 
been  sufficiently  regarded  as  an  element  of  hberal 
education.  Few  deem  it  worth  while  to  spend  in  the 
study  of  it  the  same  honest  thought  or  pains  which 
are  bestowed  on  a  classical  author.  Nor,  as  at  pres- 
ent studied,  can  it  be  said  always  to  have  an  elevating 
effect.  It  is  not  a  useful  lesson  for  the  young  student 
to  apply,  to  Scripture,  principles  which  he  would  hesi- 
tate to  apply  to  other  books  ;  to  make  formal  recon- 
cilements of  discrepancies  which  he  would  not  think 
of  reconciling  in  ordinary  history  ;  to  divide  simple 
words  into  double  meanings  ;  to  adopt  the  fancies 
or  conjectures  of  Fathers  and  commentators  as  real 
knowledge.  This  laxity  of  knowledge  is  apt  to  infect 
the  judgment  when  transferred  to  other  subjects.  It 
is  not  easy  to  say  how  much  of  the  unsettlement  of 
mind  which  prevails  among  intellectual  young  men  is 
attributable  to  these  causes  :  the  mixture  of  truth  and 
falsehood   in  religious   education   certainly  tends  to 


474  ON   TIIE  INTERPEETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

impair,  at  the  age  when  it  is  most  needed,  the  early 
influence  of  a  religious  home. 

Yet  Scripture,  studied  in  a  more  liberal  spirit, 
might  supply  a  part  of  education  which  classical  liter- 
ature fails  to  provide.  "  The  best  book  for  the  heart 
might  also  be  made  the  best  book  for  the  intellect." 
The  noblest  study  of  history  and  antiquity  is  con- 
tained in  it ;  a  poetry  which  is  also  the  highest  form 
of  moral  teaching :  there,  too,  are  lives  of  heroes  and 
prophets,  and  especially  of  One  whom  we  do  not  name 
with  them,  because  he  is  above  them.  This  history 
or  poetry  or  biography  is  distinguished  from  all  clas- 
sical or  secular  writings  by  the  contemplation  of  man 
as  he  appears  in  the  sight  of  God.  That  is  a  sense  of 
things  into  which  we  must  grow  as  well  as  reason 
ourselves  ;  without  which  human  nature  is  but  a  trun- 
cated, half-educated  sort  of  being.  But  this  sense  or 
consciousness  of  a  divine  presence  in  the  world,  which 
seems  to  be  natural  to  the  beginnings  of  the  human 
race,  but  fades  away  and  requires  to  be  renewed  in 
its  after-history,  is  not  to  be  gathered  from  Greek  or 
Roman  literature,  but  from  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ment ;  and,  before  we  can  make  the  Old  and  New 
Testament  a  real  part  of  education,  we  must  read 
them,  not  by  the  help  of  custom  or  tradition,  in  the 
spirit  of  apology  or  controversy,  but  in  accordance 
with  the  ordinary  laws  of  human  knowledge. 

lY.  Another  use  of  Scripture  is  that  in  sermons, 
which  seems  to  be  among  the  tritest,  and  yet  is  far 
from  being  exhausted.  If  we  could  only  be  natural, 
and  speak  of  things  as  they  truly  are  with  a  real 
interest,  and  not  merely  a  conventional  one  !  The 
words  of  Scripture  come  readily  to  hand,  and  the 
repetition  of  them  requires  no  effort  of  thought  in 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE.  475 

the  writer  or  speaker ;  but  neither  does  it  produce 
any  effect  on  the  hearer,  which  will  always  be  in  pro- 
portion to  the  degree  of  feeling  or  consciousness  in 
ourselves.  It  may  be  said  that  originality  is  the  gift 
of  few :  no  church  can  expect  to  have,  not  a  hun- 
dred, but  ten,  such  preachers  as  Robertson  or  New- 
man. But,  without  originality,  it  seems  possible  to 
make  use  of  Scripture  in  sermons  in  a  much  more  liv- 
ing way  than  at  present.  Let  the  preacher  make  it  a 
sort  of  religion,  and  proof  of  his  reverence  for  Scrip- 
ture, that  he  never  uses  its  words  without  a  distinct 
meaning :  let  him  avoid  the  form  of  argument  from 
Scripture,  and  catch  the  feeling  and  spirit.  Scripture 
is  itself  a  kind  of  poetry,  when  not  overlaid  with  rhet- 
oric. The  scene  and  country  has  a  freshness  which 
may  always  be  renewed  :  there  is  the  interest  of  antiq- 
uity, and  the  interest  of  home  or  common  life  as  well. 
The  facts  and  characters  of  Scripture  might  receive  a 
new  reading  by  being  described  simply  as  they  are. 
The  truths  of  Scripture,  again,  would  have  greater 
reality  if  divested  of  the  scholastic  form  in  which  the- 
ology has  cast  them.  The  universal  and  spiritual  as- 
pects of  Scripture  might  be  more  brought  forward,  to 
the  exclusion  of  questions  of  the  Jewish  law,  or  con- 
troversies about  the  sacraments,  or  exaggerated  state- 
ments of  doctrines  which  seem  to  be  at  variance  with 
morality.  The  life  of  Christ,  regarded  quite  naturally 
as  of  one  "  who  was  in  all  points  tempted  like  as  we 
are,  yet  without  sin,"  is  also  the  life  and  centre  of 
Christian  teaching.  There  is  no  higher  aim  which 
the  preacher  can  propose  to  himself  than  to  awaken 
what  may  be  termed  the  feeling  of  the  presence  of 
God  and  the  mind  of  Christ  in  Scripture :  not  to  col- 
lect evidences  about  dates  and  books,  or  to  familiarize 


476  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE. 

metaphysical  distinctions  ;  but  to  make  the  heart  and 
conscience  of  his  hearers  bear  him  witness,  that  the 
lessons  which  are  contained  in  Scripture  —  lessons  of 
justice  and  truth,  lessons  of  mercy  and  peace  —  of  the 
need  of  man  and  the  goodness  of  God  to  him  are  in- 
deed not  human,  but  divine. 

Y.  It  is  time  to  make  an  end  of  this  long  disquisi- 
tion :  let  the  end  be  a  few  more  words  of  application 
to  the  circumstances  of  a  particular  class  in  the  pres- 
ent age.  If  any  one,  who  is  about  to  become  a  cler- 
gyman, feels,  or  thinks  that  he  feels,  that  some  of  the 
preceding  statements  cast  a  shade  of  trouble  or  sus- 
picion on  his  future  walk  of  life  ;  who,  either  from 
the  influence  of  a  stronger  mind  than  his  own,  or 
from  some  natural  tendency  in  himself,  has  been  led 
to  examine  those  great  questions  which  lie  on  the 
threshold  of  the  higher  study  of  theology,  and  expe- 
riences a  sort  of  shrinking  or  dizziness  at  the  prospect 
which  is  opening  upon  him,  —  let  him  lay  to  heart  the 
following  considerations  :  First,  tliat  he  may  possibly 
not  be  the  person  who  is  called  upon  to  pursue  such 
inquiries.  No  man  should  busy  himself  with  them 
who  has  not  clearness  of  mind  enough  to  see  things 
as  they  are,  and  a  faith  strong  enough  to  rest  in  that 
degree  of  knowledge  which  God  has  really  given ;  or 
who  is  unable  to  separate  the  truth  from  his  own  relig- 
ious wants  and  experiences.  For  the  theologian,  as 
well  as  the  philosopher,  has  need  of  "  dry  light," 
"  unmingled  with  any  tincture  of  the  affections,"  the 
more  so  as  his  conclusions  are  oftener  liable  to  be  dis- 
ordered by  them.  He  who  is  of  another  tempera- 
ment may  find  another  work  to  do,  which  is  in  some 
respects  a  higher  one.  Unlike  philosopliy,  the  gospel 
has  an  ideal  life  to  offer,  not  to  a  few  only,  but  to  all. 


ON  THE  INTERPEETATION  OF   SCRIPTURE.  477 

There  is  one  word  of  caution,  however,  to  be  given  to 
those  who  renounce  inquiry  :  it  is,  that  they  cannot 
retain  the  right  to  condemn  inquirers.  Their  duty  is 
to  say,  with  Nicodemus,  "  Doth  the  gospel  condemn 
any  man  before  it  hear  him  ? "  although  the  answer 
may  be  only,  "  Art  thou  also  of  Galilee  ?  "  They  have 
chosen  the  path  of  practical  usefulness,  and  they 
should  acknowledge  that  it  is  a  narrow  path  ;  for 
any  but  a  "  strong  swimmer  "  will  be  insensibly  drawn 
out  of  it  by  the  tide  of  public  opinion  or  the  current 
of  party. 

Secondly,  Let  him  consider  that  the  difficulty  is 
not  so  great  as  imagination  sometimes  paints  it.  It 
is  a  difficulty  which  arises  chiefly  out  of  differences 
of  education  in  different  classes  of  society.  It  is  a 
difficulty  which  tact  and  prudence,  and,  much  more, 
the  power  of  a  Christian  life,  may  hope  to  surmount. 
Much  depends  on  the  manner  in  which  things  are 
said  ;  on  the  evidence,  in  the  writer  or  preacher,  of  a 
real  good-will  to  his  opponents,  and  a  desire  for  the 
moral  improvement  of  men.  There  is  an  aspect  of 
truth  which  may  always  be  put  forward  so  as  to  find 
a  way  to  the  hearts  of  men.  If  there  is  danger  and 
shrinking,  from  one  point  of  view,  —  from  another 
there  is  freedom,  and  sense  of  relief.  The  wider  con- 
templation of  the  religious  world  may  enable  us  to 
adjust  our  own  place  in  it.  The  acknowledgment  of 
churches  as  political  and  national  institutions  is  the 
basis  of  a  sound  government  of  them.  Criticism  itself 
is  not  only  negative  :  if  it  creates  some  difficulties,  it 
does  away  others.  It  may  put  us  at  variance  with  a 
party  or  section  of  Christians  in  our  own  neighbor- 
hood ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  enables  us  to  look  at 
all  men  as  they  are  in  the  sight  of  God,  not  as  they 


478  ON   THE  INTERPKETATION   OF  SCRIPTURE. 

appear  to  human  eye,  separated  and  often  interdicted 
from  each  other  by  lines  of  religious  demarcation :  it 
divides  us  from  the  parts  to  unite  us  to  the  whole. 
That  is  a  great  help  to  religious  communion.  It  does 
away  with  the  supposed  opposition  of  reason  and  faith. 
It  throws  us  back  on  the  conviction,  that  religion  is  a 
personal  thing,  in  which  certainty  is  to  be  slowly  won 
and  not  assumed  as  the  result  of  evidence  or  testimony. 
It  places  us,  in  some  respects  (though  it  be  deemed 
a  paradox  to  say  so),  more  nearly  in  the  position  of 
the  first  Christians,  to  whom  the  New  Testament  was 
not  yet  given  ;  in  whom  the  gospel  was  a  living  word, 
not  yet  embodied  in  forms,  or  supported  by  ancient 
institutions. 

Thirdly,  The  suspicion  or  difficulty  which  attends 
critical  inquiries  is  no  reason  for  doubting  their  value. 
The  Scripture  nowhere  leads  us  to  suppose  that  the 
circumstance  of  all  men  speaking  well  of  us  is  any 
ground  for  supposing  that  we  are  acceptable  in  the 
sight  of  God  ;  and  there  is  no  reason  why  the  con- 
demnation of  others  should  be  witnessed  to  by  our 
own  conscience.  Perhaps  it  may  true,  that,  owing 
to  the  jealousy  or  fear  of  some,  the  reticence  of  others, 
the  terrorism  of  a  few,  we  may  not  always  find  it 
easy  to  regard  these  subjects  with  calmness  and  judg- 
ment. But,  on  the  other  hand,  these  accidental  cir- 
cumstances have  nothing  to  do  with  the  question  at 
issue  :  they  cannot  have  the  slightest  influence  on 
the  meaning  of  words,  or  on  the  truth  of  facts.  No 
one  can  carry  out  the  principle,  that  public  opinion  or 
church  authority  is  the  guide  to  truth,  when  he  goes 
beyond  the  limits  of  his  own  church  or  country  :  that 
is  a  consideration  which  may  well  make  him  pause 
before  he  accepts  of  such  a  guide  in  the  journey  to 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF  SCRIPTURE.  479 

another  world.  All  the  arguments  for  repressing 
inquiries  into  Scripture,  in  Protestant  countries,  hold 
equally  in  Italy  and  Spain  for  repressing  inquiries 
into  matters  of  fact  or  doctrine,  and  so  for  denying 
the  Scriptures  to  the  common  people. 

Lastly,  Let  him  be  assured  that  there  is  some 
nobler  idea  of  truth  than  is  supplied  by  the  opinion 
of  mankind  in  general,  or  the  voice  of  parties  in  a 
church.  Every  one,  whether  a  student  of  theology  or 
not,  has  need  to  make  war  against  his  prejudices,  no 
less  than  against  his  passions  ;  and,  in  the  religious 
teacher,  the  first  is  even  more  necessary  than  the  last. 
For,  while  the  vices  of  mankind  are  in  a  great  degree 
isolated,  and  are,  at  any  rate,  reprobated  by  public 
opinion,  their  prejudices  have  a  sort  of  communion  or 
kindred  with  the  world  without.  They  are  a  collective 
evil,  and  have  their  being  in  the  interest,  classes,  states 
of  society,  and  other  influences  amid  which  we  live. 
He  who  takes  the  prevailing  opinions  of  Christians, 
and  decks  them  out  in  their  gayest  colors ;  who 
reflects  the  better  mind  of  the  world  to  itself,  —  is 
likely  to  be  its  favorite  teacher.  Li  that  ministry  of 
the  gospel,  even  when  assuming  forms  repulsive  to 
persons  of  education,  no  doubt  the  good  is  far  greater 
than  the  error  or  harm.  But  there  is  also  a  deeper 
work,  which  is  not  dependent  on  the  opinions  of 
men  in  which  many  elements  combine,  some  alien  to 
religion,  or  accidentally  at  variance  with  it.  That 
work  can  hardly  expect  to  win  much  popular  favor, 
so  far  as  it  runs  counter  to  the  feelings  of  religious 
parties  ;  but  he  who  bears  a  part  in  it  may  feel  a 
confidence,  which  no  popular  caresses  or  religious 
sympathy  could  inspire,  that  he  has,  by  a  divine  help, 
been   enabled  to   plant  his   foot   somewhere   beyond 


480  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

the  waves  of  time.  He  may  depart  hence  before  the 
natural  term,  worn  out  with  intellectual  toil,  regarded 
with  suspicion  by  many  of  his  contemporaries ;  yet 
not  without  a  sure  hope,  that  the  love  of  truth, 
which  men  of  saintly  lives  often  seem  to  slight,  is, 
nevertheless,  accepted  before  God. 


APPENDIX. 


21 


EE 


APPENDIX 


No.  I. 

Note  to  Page  338. 
ON  THE   "PHALARIS   CONTROVERSY." 

The  controversy  here  referred  to  was  a  learned  dispute 
between  Charles  Boyle,  afterward  Earl  of  Orrery,  and  Richard 
Bentley,  respecting  the  genuineness  of  the  Epistles  ascribed 
to  Phalaris,  the  Agrigentine  tyrant  of  brazen-bull  memory,  but 
proved  to  be  a  forgery  of  comparatively  recent  date. 

The  controversy  originated  in  the  following  manner.  In 
the  year  1690,  Sir  William  Temple  published  in  his  Miscel- 
lanea an  "Essay  upon  Ancient  and  Modern  Learning,"  in 
which  he  spoke  in  extravagant  terms  of  the  Epistles  of  Pha- 
laris, as  exemplifying  the  vast  superiority  of  ancient  over 
modern  learning.  This  eulogy  from  a  writer  of  such  high 
authority  suggested  to  Dr.  Aldrich,  then  Dean  of  Christ 
Church,  Oxford,  the  republication  of  the  work  in  question, 
an  undertaking  which  he  assigned  to  the  Hon.  Charles  Boyle, 
a  student  of  that  College.  In  1697,  the  Rev.  Wilham  Wotton 
pubhshed  a  second  edition  of  his  "  Reflections  on  Ancient  and 
Modern  Learning,"  to  which  Bentley,  at  his  request,  contrib- 
uted a  "  Dissertation "  on  the  Epistles  of  Phalaris  and  other 
topics  connected  with  Wotton's  pubhcation.  This  paper  con- 
tained a  severe  attack  on  the  Epistles,  and  on  Boyle's  edition, 
and  was  thought  by  the  scholars  of  Christ  Church  to  reflect 
injuriously  on  the  credit  of  that  College.     A  bitter  reply  was 


484  APPENDIX. 

published  during  the  following  year,  entitled,  "  Dr.  Bentley's 
Dissertations  on  the  Epistles  of  Phalaris  and  the  Fables  of 
JEsop,  examined  by  the  Honorable  Charles  Boyle,  Esq." 
Though  bearing  the  name  of  Boyle,  the  work  is  supposed  to 
have  been  the  production  of  Francis  Atterburj",  his  tutor,  as- 
sisted by  various  contributors.  This  superficial  but  ingenious 
and  amusing  essay  obtained  great  popularity,  and  passed  at 
once  to  a  second  edition.  It  was  deemed  a  complete  success, 
and  figures  in  Swift's  "  Battle  of  the  Books  "  as  a  signal  vic- 
tory achieved  by  a  gifted  youth,  with  the  aid  of  Apollo,  over  a 
rude  and  contemptuous  adversary.  Bentley  was  undisturbed, 
and  uttered  on  tliis  occasion  the  memorable  saying,  that  "  No 
man  was  ever  written  down  by  anybody  but  himself."  In 
1699,  he  published  his  "Dissertation  upon  the  Epistles  of 
Phalaris:  with  an  Answer  to  the  Objections  of  the  Hon. 
Charles  Boyle,  Esq.,"  —  which  set  the  matter  forever  at  rest. 
The  spuriousness  of  the  Epistles,  the  ignorance  and  impudence 
of  the  author  of  Boyle's  Examination,  were  triumphantly  ex- 
posed. An  answer  was  threatened,  but  none  was  attempted, 
and  none  was  possible. 

See  Dyce's  Preface  to  Bentley's  "Works,  Monk's  Life  of 
Bentley,  and  Macaulay's  Life  of  Francis  Atterbury  (the  lat- 
ter in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  Am.  ed.). 


APPENDIX.  485 


No.  II. 

THE    PRESENT  RELATIONS   OF    SCIENCE 
TO   RELIGION.* 

BY   THE 

EEV.    FREDERICK   TEMPLE,    D.D., 

HEAD-MASTER   OF  RUGBY  SCHOOL. 

EccLESiASTES  i.  17 :    "I  gave  my  heart  to  know  wisdom,  and  to  know  madness  and 
folly :  I  perceived  that  this  also  is  vexation  of  spirit." 

The  writer  of  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes  tells  us  that  he  made 
it  his  business  to  inquire  into  all  that  went  out  upon  the  earth, 
in  the  hope  that  he  might  find  "  what  was  that  good  for  the 
sons  of  men  which  they  should  do  under  the  heaven  all  the 
days  of  their  life."  His  inquiry  led  him,  in  every  instance,  to 
the  same  conclusion,  that  all  was  vanity.  The  word  "  vanity  " 
here,  however,  plainly  does  not  mean  an  absolute,  but  only  a 
relative,  condemnation.  The  preacher  does  not  mean  to  say 
that  human  pursuits  contain  absolutely  nothing  in  them  that 
is  good,  nor  does  he  wish  to  exhort  his  hearers  to  quit  alto- 
gether what  he  has  condemned.  On  the  contrary,  the  book 
abounds  with  the  fullest  acknowledgments  of  the  excellence 
of  each  human  occupation  and  enjoyment  in  its  turn.  There 
is  much  in  the  praise  of  pleasure :  "  There  is  notliing  better 
for  a  man  than  that  he  should  eat  and  drink,  and  that  he 
should  make  his  soul  enjoy  good  in  his  labor."  There  is 
much  in  praise  of  labor :  "  Whatsoever  thy  hand  findeth  to 
do,  do  it  with  thy  might."  There  is  much  in  praise  of  wis- 
dom: "Wisdom  is  better  than  strength;"  "Wisdom  is  as 
good  as  an  inheritance;"  "Wisdom  is  profitable  to  direct." 
There  is  much  in  praise  of  upright  conduct :  "  God  giveth  to 
a  man  that  is  good  in  his  sight  wisdom  and  knowledge  and 


*  A  Sermon  preached  on  Act  Sunday,  July  1, 1860,  before  the  University 
of  Oxford,  during  the  Meeting  of  the  British  Association. 


486  APPENDIX. 

joy,  but  to  the  sinner  he  giveth  travail."  There  is  much  in 
praise  of  the  happy  heart  of  youth :  *'  Let  thy  heart  cheer  thee 
in  the  days  of  thy  youth,  and  walk  in  the  ways  of  thine  heart 
and  in  the  sight  of  thine  eyes."  And  all  these  praises,  and 
the  exhortations  that  go  along  with  them  to  enjoy  the  good 
that  God  hath  given,  are  not  ironical,  but  seriously  meant. 
But,  notwithstanding,  one  after  another,  all  human  pursuits, 
all  human  gifts,  all  human  enjoyments,  are  branded  with  the 
same  mark  of  deficiency ;  all,  even  the  most  excellent,  are 
still  vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit.  Not  wisdom  only,  and 
labor,  and  youth,  and  pleasure,  but  even  the  upright  walk 
and  the  keeping  of  the  ordinances  of  religion,  even  they  too 
are  in  the  same  sense  vanity.  "  There  is  one  event  to  the 
righteous  and  to  the  wicked,  to  the  clean  and  to  the  unclean, 
to  him  that  sacrificeth  and  to  him  that  sacrificeth  not ;  as  is 
the  good  so  is  the  sinner,  and  he  that  sweareth  as  he  that 
feareth  an  oath." 

It  is  plain  that  the  sense  in  which  all  these  things  are 
vanity  is,  that  they  cannot  satisfy.  They  are  all,  without 
exception,  shadows  and  not  substance.  They  all,  without 
exception,  promise  what  they  cannot  perform.  Each  in  its 
turn  promises  to  fill  the  whole  man  and  give  him  all  that  he 
wants.  There  are  excellent  enjoyments  which,  some  for  a 
shorter,  some  for  a  longer  time,  seem  to  be  all  that  the  soul 
desires.  There  are  occupations  and  labors  which  aim  at  so 
worthy  an  end,  and  are  rewarded  by  so  noble  an  appreciation, 
that  for  a  time  the  soul  believes  them  equal  to  all  its  needs. 
The  fire  of  youthful  happiness  burns  so  brightly,  and  so 
warmly,  and  so  purely,  that  we  are  tempted  to  declare  it  the 
one  best  gift  of  God.  There  is  a  path  of  life  so  honored  by 
men,  so  approved  by  conscience,  namely,  the  path  of  duty, 
that  in  it  surely  might  well  seem  to  be  comprised  all  that 
man  can  possibly  require.  And  yet  each  one  of  these  will 
be  found  wanting :  good  as  far  as  it  goes,  but  not  the  whole  ; 
promising  to  satisfy,  and  never  fulfilling  its  promise ;  in  fact, 
only  then  fulfilling  its  function  when  it  proclaims  its  own 
vanity,  and  bids  the  seeker  seek  further  stiU.     The  very  ex- 


APPENDIX.  487 

cellence  of  the  most  excellent  of  all  these  will  the  more 
emphatically  condemn  it,  for  that  excellence  is  the  false  hght 
which  allures  men  to  beheve  in  its  perfection,  and  to  fancy 
that  all  that  is  wanted  shall  here  be  found. 

So  we  are  led  to  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter. 
"  Fear  God  and  keep  his  commandments,  for  this  is  the 
whole  of  man."  Not  in  pleasure,  however  pure  and  however 
heavenly ;  not  in  wisdom,  however  searching;  not  in  labor,  how- 
ever successful ;  not  in  worldly  duty,  however  self-denying  ; 
but  in  God  shall  we  find  the  true  substance  of  all  that  is  done 
under  the  sun,  the  reality  of  which  all  else  is  the  image,  the 
brightness  of  which  all  else  is  the  reflection. 

This  conclusion  has  been  in  the  minds  of  the  vast  majority 
of  thinkers  ever  since.  It  is  possible  to  forget  God  altogether 
in  the  whirl  of  pleasure,  in  the  absorbing  interests  of  business 
or  of  ambition.  But  the  student  cannot  well  forget  the  ques- 
tion which  underlies  all  other  questions :  "  What  is  it  that  gives 
any  unity  or  consistency  to  all  these  studies  ?  What  is  the 
relation  between  our  knowledge  and  the  source  of  all  knowl- 
edge ?  What  can  human  science  tell  me  of  divine  nature  ?  " 
And  those  who  have  been  more  than  students,  who  have  been 
Christians  in  heart  as  well  as  searchers  after  truth,  have 
sought  for  an  answer  to  this  question,  not  as  the  solution  of 
an  intellectual  puzzle,  but  as  the  true  end  of  all  their  studies. 
The  desire  to  find  God  in  all  his  works  is  certainly  not  rare, 
the  desire  to  clear  up  the  relation  between  faith  and  science 
is  almost  universal  in  those  who  devote  themselves  to  scientific 
investigation.  Hence  no  sooner  is  any  physical  theory  or 
hypothesis  proposed  which  in  the  remotest  way  can  affect  the 
belief  of  Christians,  than  its  bearings  on  every  article  of  the 
Christian  faith,  and  even  on  every  detail  of  the  commonly 
received  rehgious  opinions,  are  discussed  at  the  fullest  length, 
and  not  unfrequently  with  an  eager  anxiety  to  identify  faith 
and  science  which  overshoots  the  mark,  by  attempting  to  de- 
cide before  there  is  evidence  enough  for  a  decision. 

On  the  present  occasion  it  seems  to  be  not  unfitting  to 
examine  some  of  the  leading  relations  between  religion  and 


488  APPENDIX. 

science,  especially  with  a  view  to  point  out  some  of  the 
changes  which  the  progress  of  science  is  producing  in  them. 

Science  has  been  called  the  handmaid  of  theology,  and 
theology  has  often  had  recourse  to  science  for  arguments  to 
prove  or  confirm  her  fundamental  propositions.  But  it  is  re- 
markable that  theology  has  almost  always  for  this  purpose 
dwelt  chiefly,  not  on  the  scientific,  but  on  the  unscientific 
statements  of  science.  Arguments  have  been  commonly  ex- 
tracted, not  from  the  revelations  of  science,  but  from  her  con- 
fessions ;  and  theology  has  begun  where  science  has  ended. 
It  has  been  conunon  to  trace  the  power  of  God,  not  in  that 
which  is  universal,  but  in  that  which  is  individual ;  not  in  the 
laws  of  nature,  but  in  any  apparent  interference  with  those 
laws  ;  not  in  the  maintenance,  but  in  the  creation,  of  the  uni- 
verse. And  sometimes  such  stress  has  been  laid  upon  these 
arguments,  that  to  deny  them  was  held  to  be  a  denial  of  their 
conclusions  ;  and  men  were  thought  impious  who  attempted 
to  represent  the  present  order  of  the  solar  system  or  the  ex- 
istence of  animal  life  as  the  work  of  natural  causes,  and  not 
the  direct  handiwork  of  God  himself.  And  yet  spontaneous 
generation  was  long  beheved  in  by  the  most  rehgious  men, 
and  there  seems  no  more  reason  why  the  solar  system  should 
not  have  been  brought  into  its  present  form  by  the  slow  work- 
ing of  natural  causes  than  the  surface  of  the  earth,  about 
whose  gradual  formation-  most  students  are  now  agreed.  The 
fact  is,  that  one  idea  is  now  emerging  into  supremacy  in 
science,  a  supremacy  which  it  never  possessed  before,  and  for 
which  it  still  has  to  fight  a  battle ;  and  that  is  the  idea  of 
law.  Different  orders  of  natural  phenomena  have  in  time 
past  been  held  to  be  exempt  from  that  idea,  either  tacitly  or 
avowedly.  The  weather,  the  thunder  and  lightning,  the 
crops  of  the  earth,  the  progress  of  disease,  whether  over  a 
country  or  in  an  individual,  these  have  been  considered  as 
regulated  by  some  special  interference,  even  when  it  was 
already  known  that  the  recurrence  of  the  seasons,  the  motions 
of  the  planets,  the  periodic  winds,  and  other  phenomena  of 
the   same  kind,  were   subject  to  invariable  laws.     But  the 


APPENDIX.  489 

steady  march  of  science  has  now  reached  the  point  when  men 
are  tempted,  or  rather  compelled,  to  jump  at  once  to  a  uni- 
versal conclusion :  all  analogy  points  one  way,  and  none  an- 
other. And  the  student  of  science  is  learning  to  look  upon 
fixed  laws  as  universal,  and  many  of  the  old  arguments 
which  science  once  supplied  to  religion  are  in  consequence 
rapidly  disappearing.  How  strikingly  altered  is  our  view 
from  that  of  a  few  centuries  ago  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
the  miracles  recorded  in  the  Bible,  which  once  were  looked 
on  as  the  bulwarks  of  the  faith,  are  now  felt  by  very  many 
to  be  difficulties  in  their  way;  and  commentators  endeavor 
to  represent  them,  not  as  mere  interferences  with  the  laws  of 
nature,  but  as  the  natural  action  of  still  higher  laws  belono-- 
ing  to  a  world  whose  phenomena  are  only  half  revealed  to  us. 

It  is  evident  that  this  change  in  science  necessitates  a 
change  in  its  relation  to  faith.  If  law  be  either  almost  or 
altogether  universal,  we  must  look  for  the  finger  of  God  in 
that  law :  we  must  expect  to  find  him  manifesting  his  love, 
his  wisdom,  his  infinity,  not  in  individual  acts  of  will,  but 
in  a  perfection  of  legislation  rendering  all  individual  action 
needless  ;  we  must  find  his  providence  in  that  perfect  adapta- 
tion of  all  the  parts  of  the  machine  to  one  another  which  shall 
have  the  effect  of  tender  care,  though  it  proceed  by  an  inva- 
riable action.  The  vast  consequences  which  flow  from  a  few 
simple  properties  of  matter,  the  profusion  of  combinations,  the 
beauty,  the  order,  the  happiness  which  abound  in  the  creation 
in  consequence  of  these,  such  must  be  now  the  teachers  of  the 
man  of  science  to  make  him  feel  that  God  is  with  him  in  all 
his  studies. 

It  may  be,  indeed,  that  the  scientific  student  is  every  day  less 
and  less  driven  to  confession  of  the  narrowness  of  his  knowl- 
edge :  he  has  less  occasion  for  the  humility  which  once  allowed 
vast  realms  of  nature  to  lie  out  of  the  domain  of  science,  and 
was  wont  to  say,  when  baffled,  "  Here  human  powers  can  go  no 
further ;  this  knowledge  God  has  reserved  for  himself."  On 
the  contrary,  he  is  now  inclined  to  think  that,  if  only  time 
21* 


490  APPENDIX. 

enough  be  given,  there  seems  to  be  no  kind  of  phenomenon 
mider  the  sun  which  patient  study  will  not  bring  within  the 
range  of  science.  But  this  only  amounts  to  saying  that  he 
must  learn  humility  in  another  way.  God  will  not  stop  hu- 
man science  in  order  to  teach  man  humility.  He  will  not 
have  man  ignorant  in  order  to  be  humble.  He  will  have  h*m 
study  and  learn,  and  be  humble  notwithstanding.  And 
already  we  can  see  that,  as  the  bar  is  removed  which  once 
seemed  to  stop  man's  progress  in  knowledge,  so  all  the  clearer 
is  the  bar  made  manifest  which  limits  his  powers  of  action. 
You  have  studied  the  laws  of  God's  creation ;  can  you  alter 
one  of  them  in  the  very  slightest  degree  ?  You  have  weighed 
the  matter  of  the  earth  ;  can  you  create  or  can  you  (as  would 
have  been  thought  not  long  ago)  annihilate  one  grain  of  its 
dust  ?  The  creation  of  matter  and  the  creation  of  the  laws 
of  matter  is  absolutely  beyond  all  your  power  and  all  your 
wisdom ;  and  the  longer  you  study  and  the  wider  appears  to 
your  eye  the  possible  range  of  your  science,  the  more  clear 
and  certain  is  this  conclusion.  There  we  find  the  hand  of 
God ;  there  we  shall  never  find  the  hand  of  man. 

The  natural  objection  to  find  God  in  laws  rather  than  in 
acts  is  that  it  tends  to  a  kind  of  pantheism  which  robs  us  of 
our  belief  in  God's  personality.  There  is  not  perhaps  much, 
though  there  is  some,  tendency  to  that  gross  material  panthe- 
ism which  identifies  the  universe  with  God,  and,  making  all 
created  matter  to  be  as  it  were  his  body,  destroys  our  con- 
ception of  his  nature.  But  there  is  a  considerable  tendency 
to  the  subtler  pantheism,  which  forgets  him  in  the  idea  of  a 
universal  law  or  system  of  laws,  with  a  rigid  mechanical  ac- 
tion ;  without  tenderness,  without  consciousness,  without  any 
answer  to  affection.  It  is  clear,  however,  that  this  tendency 
to  pantheism  is  not  in  the  conception  of  law,  but  in  our  own 
minds ;  and  the  proper  corrective  is  to  lift  our  minds  up  to 
the  level  which  science  demands  of  us.  For  we  form  our 
idea  of  God,  and  indeed  we  must  do  so,  by  analogy  from  our- 
selves.    In  the  infancy  of  knowledge  the  spii'itual  faculty  in 


APPENDIX.  491 

man  appears  to  be  his  will.  The  ideal  of  manhood  is  that  of 
a  will  working  at  every  moment  by  pure  and  high  instincts, 
by  the  instincts  of  love,  and  tenderness,  and  unselfish  generos- 
ity, and  noble  self-respect.  But  as  knowledge  grows,  even  in 
the  short  course  of  our  own  life,  the  reason  and  not  the  will, 
the  principles  and  not  the  instincts,  become  the  supreme  char- 
acteristic of  man,  and  that  which  most  distinguishes  him  from 
all  lower  creatures.  Then  the  ideal  of  manhood  is  that  of  a 
will  subordinate  to  an  enlightened  reason  or  conscience,  acting 
by  laws  the  ground  of  which  is  understood,  with  a  fore- 
thought of  consequences,  with  a  deliberateness  of  purpose, 
not  swayed  hither  and  thither  by  even  the  highest  impulses, 
but  joining  to  the  tenderest  feelings  the  power  of  harmon- 
izing them  with  a  consistent,  unvarying  rule  of  action.  So, 
too,  we  may  think  of  God  as  love,  but  as  love  already  ac- 
quainted with  all  that  will  happen  or  that  can  happen,  and 
therefore  able  to  harmonize  that  love  with  a  fixed  system  of 
laws,  and  not  driven,  as  human  love  is  often  driven,  to  shift 
its  course  by  the  occurrence  or  the  discovery  of  circumstan- 
ces previously  unknown.  "We  can  think  of  his  tenderness 
as  shown,  not  in  stopping  the  machinery  of  the  world  to 
adapt  our  circumstances  to  our  short-sighted  wishes,  but  in 
supplying  our  souls  with  a  spiritual  power  which  will  enable 
us  to  rise  above  all  circumstances  whatever. 

This,  however,  is  not  all  that  we  get  from  the  idea  of  law. 
The  laws  of  conscience,  quite  as  much  as  the  laws  of  nature, 
are  capable  of  being  represented  to  our  minds  in  their  high- 
est form  as  absolutely  fixed.  Not  only  are  they  capable  of 
being  so  represented,  but  it  is  the  shape  which  they  naturally 
wear.  We  naturally  think,  as  soon  as  we  conceive  the  idea 
of  law  at  all,  of  the  laws  of  morals  as  being  in  their  supreme 
manifestation  eternal  and  immutable.  And  while  science  de- 
mands our  recognition  of  the  universal  dominion  of  physical 
laws,  and  treats  all  exceptions  as  so  rare  that  we  may  safely 
disregard  them  in  our  estimate,  so  conscience  perpetually  pro- 
claims the  existence  and  loftier  dominion  of  her  moral  law, 
and  requires  us  to  believe,  under  pain  of  her  displeasure,  and 


492  APPENDIX. 

as  we  value  tlie  dignity  of  our  own  manliood,  that  all  law3 
are  subordinate  to  hers,  and  that,  whatever  appearances  there 
may  be  to  the  contrary,  holiness  and  goodness  and  justice  are 
the  final  arbiters  of  all  that  is,  or  hath  been,  or  shall  be,  in 
the  universe.  Thus,  above  and  beyond  all  the  physical  laws 
that  we  know,  rises  another  of  a  different  kind,  proclaiming  a 
different  authority,  demanding  a  completer  obedience.  Long 
induction  compels  our  unhesitating  belief  in  the  properties  of 
matter,  or,  in  other  words,  in  the  laws  of  nature.  No  one 
doubts  that  fire  will  burn,  that  ice  will  chill,  that  poison  will 
destroy ;  and  the  proof  of  the  faith  is  given  by  the  obedience 
rendered.  Precisely  the  same  unhesitating  faith  will  con- 
science require  for  the  moral  law ;  we  are  to  believe  with  the 
same  unhesitating  certainty  that  justice  and  goodness  and  ho- 
liness rule  the  universe,  and  we  are  to  act  on  that  belief. 

And  further,  this  moral  law  is  not  capable,  like  the  physi- 
cal law,  of  being  conceived  as  impersonal,  but  carries  in  it 
the  conviction  of  its  own  personality.  For  a  moral  law  dif- 
fers from  a  physical  law  in  this,  that  a  physical  law  is  satis- 
fied by  mere  verification :  it  is  enough  for  a  physical  law  if 
the  facts  invariably  accord  with  the  predictions  of  the  law. 
Not  so  with  a  moral  law.  It  is  not  justice  if  by  some  mere 
external  accident  it  so  happens  that  I  get  my  deserts ;  a  mur- 
derer is  not  really  punished  for  a  murder  because  he  is  acci- 
dentally hung  by  those  who  know  nothing  of  his  crime ;  a 
servant  would  not  consider  himself  to  have  received  his 
wages  because  he  found  an  equal  amount  by  a  lucky  accident. 
The  intention  is  essential  to  the  morality ;  it  would  not  satisfy 
the  demands  of  justice  that  by  some  accident  it  should  turn 
out  that  justice  was  always  done :  it  must  not  only  be  done, 
it  must  be  intended.  And  if  there  is  intention,  there  is  will ; 
and  if  there  is  will,  there  is  personality.  And  thus  the  moral 
law,  whose  sovereign  authority  is  incessantly  proclaimed  with- 
in us,  becomes  the  embodiment  of  the  God  of  holiness,  and  in 
obeying  it  we  are  worshipping  Him. 

It  is  true  that  we  rise  to  the  belief  in  the  universal  domin- 
ion of  the  moral  law  by  an  act  of  faith,  and  not  by  demon- 


APPENDIX.  493 

stration ;  but  the  moral  spring  is  not  greater  in  this  case  than 
the  intellectual  spring  in  the  other.  No  man  can  say  that  it 
is  yet  demonstrated  in  detail  that  all  nature  is  subject  to  fixed 
laws ;  in  fact,  many  who  are  not  themselves  students  of  sci- 
ence, and  are  therefore  only  bound  to  accept  the  conclusions 
of  science  so  far  as  they  are  demonstrated,  will  still  maintain 
that  the  health  of  the  body  and  the  changes  of  the  weather 
are  under  some  special  government,  and  not  under  absolutely 
fixed  laws  at  all.  Yet  such  is  the  power  of  the  perpetually 
operating  analogy  of  science,  that  no  student  of  nature  seri- 
ously doubts  the  universality,  or,  at  any  rate,  the  generality, 
of  the  principle.  Exceptions  may  still  be  possible,  for  our 
ignorance  is,  after  all,  greater  than  our  knowledge,  but  assur- 
edly they  are  so  extremely  rare  that  they  need  not  be  counted. 
And  why  do  we  thus  l£ap  to  this  conclusion  ?  Because  with- 
out it  all  science  becomes  incomplete  and  unaccountable ;  be- 
cause we  have  tried  it  over  and  over  again,  and  it  has  never 
yet  failed  us;  because  it  perpetually  opens  new  paths  of 
knowledge,  and  no  other  principle  ever  has.  Noav  for  pre- 
cisely the  same  reasons  do  we  leap  to  the  parallel  conclusion 
in  reliofion.  We  have  not  evidence  enou2fh  to  show  that  the 
moral  law  rules  the  world ;  there  is,  indeed,  much  that  obeys 
it,  but  there  is  also  much  that  seems  to  disobey  it ;  but  never 
for  a  moment  does  conscience  relax  her  demand  upon  our 
assent:  for  without  it  all  our  morality  becomes  incomplete 
and  unaccountable ;  the  belief  in  it  has  always  promised  to 
raise  us  in  the  scale  of  moral  being,  and,  whenever  we  have 
tried  it,  it  has  never  failed  to  do  so ;  it  perpetually  lifts  us 
above  ourselves  to  all  we  find  noblest  and  purest  and  best, 
and  no  other  principle  ever  did  or  will. 

Thus  while  the  fixed  laws  of  science  can  supply  natural 
religion  with  numberless  illustrations  of  the  wisdom,  the  be- 
neficence, the  order,  the  beauty  that  characterize  the  work- 
manship of  God  ;  while  they  illustrate  his  infinity  by  the 
marvellous  complexity  of  natural  combinations,  by  the  variety 
and  order  of  his  creatures,  by  the  exquisite  finish  alike  be- 
stowed on  the  very  greatest  and  on  the  very  least  of  his 


494  APPENDIX. 

works,  as  if  size  were  absolutely  nothing  in  his  sight ;  so,  too, 
they  supply  the  analogy  by  which  we  can  rise  above  them- 
selves to  that  still  higher  law  in  which  we  find  the  very  pres- 
ence of  the  person  of  the  Godhead. 

Similar  to  this  relation  between  science  and  natural  re- 
ligion is  the  relation  between  science  and  revelation.  There 
was  a  time  when  the  spheres  of  these  two  were  distinct ;  or, 
if  there  was  ever  an  appearance  of  collision,  science  was 
required  to  give  place.  That  time  ceased  with  Galileo,  and 
can  never  return.  The  student  of  science  now  feels  himself 
bound  by  the  interests  of  truth,  and  can  admit  no  other 
obligation.  And  if  he  be  a  religious  man,  he  believes  that 
both  books,  the  book  of  Nature  and  the  book  of  Revelation, 
come  alike  from  God,  and  that  he  has  no  more  right  to  re- 
fuse to  accept  what  he  finds  in  the  one  than  what  he  finds 
in  the  other.  The  two  books  are  indeed  on  totally  different 
subjects  ;  the  one  may  be  called  a  treatise  on  physics  and 
mathematics;  the  other,  a  treatise  on  theology  and  morals. 
But  they  are  both  by  the  same  Author ;  and  the  difference 
in  their  importance  is  derived  from  the  difference  in  their 
matter,  and  not  from  any  difference  in  their  authority. 
Whenever,  therefore,  there  is  a  collision  between  them, 
the  dispute  becomes  simply  a  question  of  evidence.  Here, 
you  have  in  nature  God's  handiwork;  there,  you  have  in 
the  Bible  the  message  which  he  commissioned  certain  ser- 
vants of  his  to  give  you.  They  do  not  appear  to  agree. 
Now,  on  the  one  side,  are  you  quite  certain  in  your  inter- 
pretation of  his  handiwork  ?  on  the  other,  are  you  quite 
certain  that  you  are  not  mixing  up  with  his  message  some 
extraneous  matter  which  belongs  not  to  the  message,  but 
to  the  messenger  ?  In  the  case  of  Galileo  the  question 
has  been  answered  ;  the  astronomer  was  right,  the  theo- 
logians were  wrong.  The  apparent  statement  that  the  sun 
went  round  the  earth  is  now  acknowledged  to  belong  to 
the  messenger,  not  to  the  message  ;  to  the  language,  not 
to  the  substance.  The  present  state  of  science  indicates 
that   there   will   be   more    answers   in   the   same   direction. 


APPENDIX.  495 

Geology,  for  instance,  has  already  altered  our  conception 
of  a  great  part  of  the  book  of  Genesis.  Researches  into 
ancient  records  seem  likely  to  affect  the  details  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  early  races  of  mankind.  How  each  one  of  the 
many  questions  thus  started  will  be  ultimately  answered 
it  is  impossible  to  say.  The  probability  is  that  both  the 
agreements  and  the  discrepancies  between  science  and  the 
Biblical  narrative  will  be  very  different  from  what  we  now 
suppose  :  but,  at  any  rate,  it  is  tolerably  plain  that  the 
Bible  is  not  to  look  to  science  for  that  confirmation  of 
minute  details  which  not  very  long  ago  was  confidently 
expected,  and  in  many  cases  apparently  produced. 

Is  there,  then,  no  hannony  between  the  Bible  and  sci- 
ence ?  Are  they,  if  not  foes,  yet  so  distinct  as  to  have 
no  point  of  meeting  ?  Not  so.  But  this  harmony  is  to 
be  looked  for  in  a  different  direction  ;  not  in  petty  details 
of  facts  are  we  to  find  it,  but  in  the  deep  identity  of 
tone,  character,  and  spirit  which  pervade  both  the  books. 
Where,  for  instance,  in  all  literature  is  the  wonderful  pa- 
tience of  God's  operations  more  clearly  exhibited  than  in 
the  Bible  ?  Again  and  again  are  we,  as  it  were,  reminded 
that  to  him  a  thousand  years  are  as  one  day,  and  one  day 
as  a  thousand  years.  To  him,  an  absolutely  infinite  being, 
what  difference  can  there  be  between  long  and  short  ? 
why  should  he  not  spend  ages  as  willingly  as  seconds? 
So  he  chooses  out  a  people  two  thousand  years  before  it 
is  wanted,  and  drills  it  and  disciplines  it  from  the  call  of 
Abraham  to  the  coming  of  our  Lord;  all,  as  it  seems,  to 
make  a  fit  scene  for  that  four  years  of  our  Lord's  minis- 
try, and  a  fit  instrument  for  conveying  his  message  to  the 
world.  Is  not  this  like  the  same  Hand  that  lavishes  in 
unmeasured  profusion  thousands  of  years  to  make  a  conti- 
nent, to  stock  it  with  mountains  and  rivers,  with  mines  and 
stone-quarries,  all,  as  it  seems,  to  be  a  scene  for  the  history 
of  one  of  our  passing  nations  ?  Or  again,  look  at  the  enor- 
mous waste  that  seems  to  meet  us  in  the  very  conception  of 
choosing  a  people  at  all.     The  Jews  were  God's  chosen,  but 


496  APPENDIX. 

what  were  all  the  rest  ?  Some  few  races,  we  can  see,  were 
tramed  up  for  similar,  though  inferior,  purposes  ;  but  how 
vast  a  number  seem  no  more  than  a  mere  store  of  material 
useless  for  the  present.  And  is  there  not  a  similar  waste  in 
the  creation  of  nature,  stores  of  fossils  buried  where  they  can 
be  of  no  value,  plants  growing  where  none  can  enjoy  them, 
seeds  and  eggs  by  millions  that  never  come  to  life  at  all  ? 
Or  again,  look  at  the  marvellous  adaptation  to  human  feeling 
which  marks  every  precept  of  the  Bible,  and  compare  it  with 
the  wonderful  beauty  and  beneficence  of  nature.  Or  again, 
look  at  the  awful  sternness  with  which  the  Bible  threatens  all 
disobedience,  and  compare  it  with  the  merciless  severity  of 
the  physical  laws  when  they  are  disobeyed.  Or  again,  look 
at  the  mystery  of  repentance,  the  restoration  to  favor  so  often 
accompanied  by  no  remission  of  the  penalty,  and  see  if  nature 
does  not  often  repair  a  fault  in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  the 
punishment  for  life.  Or  again,  look  at  the  strange  instances 
of  curses  turned  to  blessings,  and  men  apparently  raised  in 
some  sense  to  a  higher  state  by  having  fallen,  and  compare  it 
with  those  strange  caprices,  as  we  call  them,  by  which  nature 
sometimes  changes  mischief  into  downright  improvement. 
Whatever  may  be  the  case  as  regards  the  details  of  the 
narrative,  assuredly  there  can  be  no  mistake  regarding  the 
spirit  of  the  author.  The  more  the  Bible  is  studied,  and  the 
more  nature  is  studied,  the  deeper  will  be  found  the  harmony 
between  them  in  character,  the  more  assured  the  certainty 
that  whoever  inspired  the  one  also  made  the  other.  And 
most  assured  will  that  certainty  be  in  the  mind  of  him  who 
studies  the  Bible  as  it  was  meant  to  be  studied,  not  as  an 
interesting  historical  record,  but  as  the  guide  of  life,  the  reve- 
lation of  spiritual  truth,  the  awakener  and  the  kindler  of 
religious  inspiration. 

But  when  we  liave  reached  this  point,  when  we  have  made 
science  help  us  into  religion,  have  we  indeed  reached,  accord- 
ing to  the  Preacher,  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  ?  No, 
indeed.  Religious  speculations,  tliough  the  highest  of  all 
speculations,  are  yet  but  speculations  ;  and  if  we  rest  in  them 


APPENDIX.  497 

we  shall  certainly  be  compelled  to  pronounce  them  also  vanity 
and  vexatlou  of  spirit.  When  we  fight  the  battle  with  beset- 
ting sins  ;  when  we  have  to  resist  some  terrible  attack  from 
sensuality,  from  ambition,  from  vanity,  from  pride  ;  in  the 
great  crises  of  our  life,  when  we  stand  where  several  ways 
meet,  and  our  better  nature  is  at  war  with  our  lower,,and  we 
seem  to  say,  What  shall  I  do  to  inherit  eternal  life  ?  and  a 
still  small  voice  seems  to  answer,  Sell  what  thou  hast  and  give 
unto  the  poor,  and  come,  follow  Me ;  on  the  bed  of  sickness 
and  of  death,  when  this  world  seems  to  fade  out  of  sight ;  in 
the  day  of  sharp  trouble,  of  anxiety,  of  wounded  affection,  of 
hopeless  misery,  —  then  we  need  something  more  than  relig- 
ious speculations,  even  of  the  loftiest  kind  ;  then  we  are  not 
contented  to  hear  of  the  moral  law  or  of  the  nature  of  God : 
we  want  God  himself,  and  without  the  living  God  we  feel 
that  we  cannot  stand.  Then  it  is  that  the  student  of  science 
knows  that  the  most  unlettered  peasant  can  penetrate  to  the 
true  reality  of  all  things  as  surely  as  the  wisest  philosopher  ; 
then  science  is  called  vanity,  and  theology  is  forgotten ;  then 
pain  is  God's  scourge  to  chastise,  and  his  judgments  are 
warnings,  and  the  cry  of  our  hearts  is  the  echo  of  the  groan- 
ings  of  his  spirit,  and  the  3ible  is  a  letter  written  in  his  own 
hand,  and  we  are  his  children,  and  he  is  our  Father.  Then 
all  else  fails  us,  and  we  cannot  be  content  except  we  are 
clasped  to  his  bosom  and  feel  the  Shepherd's  arms  around  us. 
If  our  science  is  incompatible  with  this ;  if  it  stifles  the  voice 
of  nature,  and  prevents  us  from  knowing  that  God  is  our 
Father  and  that  we  are  his  chikben,  and  that  all  his  ano-er 
even  against  our  sins  is  still  the  anger  of  a  Father  who  never 
ceases  to  love  us ;  if  its  mechanical  accuracy  chills  our  feelings 
and  blunts  the  keen  edge  of  our  desire  to  be  like  him,  to  be 
with  him,  to  belong  to  him,  —  then  certainly  is  such  science 
vanity,  and  worse  than  vanity  ;  if  it  is  truth  to  others,  it  is  a 
deadly  lie  to  ourselves.  But  the  reverent  study  of  the  vrorks 
of  God  assuredly  need  not  ever  lead  in  this  direction.  Eather 
in  such  study,  as  men  behold  the  marvellous  balance  whereby 

PF 


498  APPENDIX. 

our  Father  ever  restores  all  tilings  to  their  true  rest,  can  they 
best  learn,  if  they  will,  the  quiet  calmness,  the  trust  in  the 
Almighty's  power  and  goodness,  which  best  befits  a  Christian 
soul.  The  reverent  study  of  His  works  can  and  will  bring  us 
nearer  in  temper  to  their  Divine  Author.  For  of  Him,  and 
through  Him,  and  to  Him  are  all  things ;  to  whom  be  glory 
forever.     Amen. 


THE  END. 


Cambridge :  Stereotyped  and  Printed  by  Welch,  Bigelow,  &  Co. 


PUBLICATIONS 

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LIFE  OF  JESUS.  By  Dr.  Carl  Hase,  Professor  of  Theology 
in  the  University  of  Jena.  Translated  from  the  German  by 
James  F.  Clarke.     12mo.     75  cents. 

Of  this  important  work  the  translator  says  •  —  "Among  the  many 
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Hase  is  distinguished  by  uniting  decision  with  impartiality,  and  mod- 
eration of  opinion  with  entire  freedom.  The  book  avoids  extremes, 
without  trying  to  avoid  them.  It  treats  its  subject  with  fearless  ear- 
nestness, but  the  result  arrived  at  is  neither  the  conclusion  of  Strauss 
nor  that  of  Hengstenberg." 

"  Hase  is  distinguished  for  his  freedom  from  extreme  views,  his  wide  range  of 
learning,  and  his  geniality  and  ehiquence  of  expression."  — JV.  Y.  Tribune. 

"  In  none  of  the  popular  Commentaries  can  one  obtain  the  information  impart- 
ed here  ;  in  no  other  volume  are  the  Gospels  so  sifted  and  criticised,  always 
with  the  thorougliness  of  a  deep  thinker  and  a  profound  scholar,  but  also  with 
the  devoutness  of  a  reliErinus  spirit."— JVf 7/7  Covenavl,  Chicago. 

"  An  invaluable  book  to  students  of  the  New  Testament.  ° .  .  .  We  feel  as  if 
we  were  reading  the  work  of  a  theologian,  disposed  to  doubt,  but  comiielled  by 
evidence  to  believe."  —  Boston  Transcript. 

"  [t  hears  evidence  of  profound  learninjr  and  a  crit'cal  knowledge  of  the  Bible, 
together  with  a  thorough  acquaintance  with  modern  Bible  critics."  —  Christian 
Freeman. 

"  This  is  a  concise  treatise,  packed  with  German  learning,  and  characterized 
by  moderation,  sagacity,  impartiality,  and  reverence,  with  far  less  than  usual  of 
the  German  haze  and  mistiness  of  thought  and  style." —  Christian  Reo-ister. 

"  In  the  main,  Dr.  Ha«e  contends  for  the  historical  veracity  of  the  Gospels  in 
opposition  to  the  mythical  theory  of  Strauss.  Indeed  his  criticisms  upon  this 
point  are  so  thorough  and  satisfactory,  that  every  Biblical  student  should  put 
himself  in  possession  of  them."— JV*.  Y.  Independent. 


4  WALKER,    AVISE,    &    CO.  S    TUBLICATIOXS. 

The  New  Commentary. 

DISQUISITIONS  AND  NOTES  ON  THE  GOSPELS.— 
MATTHEW.  By  Rev.  John  11.  Morison,  D.  D.  12mo. 
$  1.25. 

This  important  work,  which  has  been  long  in  preparation,  and 
upon  which  the  accurate  and  acconi[)lislied  author  hus  hcstowcd  great 
labor  and  thought,  will,  it  is  believed,  meet  a  d(4cided  want  in  tbis 
department  of  knowledge.  The  publishers  inviie  public  attention 
to  it. 

*'  The  object  of  this  work  is  to  assist  in  the  interpretation  of  the  Gospels.  It 
does  not  seek  to  f^o  beyond  ihe  aiillioriiy  of  Jesus.  Ii  does  nut  undertake  to 
show  what  the  Evangelists  ought  to  liave  said,  and  to  force  tlieir  language  into 
accordance  with  it."  —  Extract  from  the  Preface. 

"  Tlie  author  has  done  his  work  well,  and  the  book  will  prove  a  most  inter- 
esting and  useful  help  to  students  of  the  Mew  'I'estainent.'' — Boston  .Mdvtrtiscr. 

"The  'Notes'  evince  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  Pcri[)tures,  an  extensive 
acquaintance  with  ancient  and  modern  commentaturs,  and  strong  native  powers 
of  analysis." —  Saturday  Evening  Oazetle. 

"  We  cannot  refrain  from  heartily  commending  the  spirit  in  which  this  work 
is  conceived  and  expressed.  The  attitude  of  the  auihor,  and  the  one  into  which 
he  seeks  to  lead  his  readers,  is  that  of  a  reverent  student  of  the  words  of  Christ, 
placing  perfect  faith  on  all  his  teachings,  and  seeking  only,  by  freeing  the  mind 
from  the  trammels  of  prejudice  and  preconceived  opinions,  to  arrive  at  the  true 
meaning  of  those  leacliings.  This  loving  and  reverential  spirit,  united  to  ripe 
scholarship,  abundantly  fits  the  author  for  his  task,  and  makes  his  work  a  valu- 
able guide  to  students  of  the  Bible." — Boston  Journal. 

"  It  is  not  merely  a  collection  of  brief  notes  exjilanatory  of  words  and  facts  in 
the  Common  Version,  but  to  these  are  added  succinct  yet  luminous  essays  on 
the  most  difficult  and  questioned  points  in  the  history  and  teachings  of  Christ. 
Mr.  Morison  submits  implicitly  to  the  authority  of  the  Saviour,  accepts  all  he 
said  and  did,  and  only  seeks  honestly  to  interpret  it,  with  all  the  lights  tl  own 
upon  it  in  eighteen  and  a  half  centuries We  need  say  nothing  of  his  well- 
known  clear  logic  and  beautiful  perspicuity  of  style,  his  moral  glow,  his  spiritual 
insight,  his  nice  perception  and  quick  symi)athy  with  all  Ihe  peculiar  loveliness 
of  the  character  of  Jesus.  He  understands  because  he  loves,  ami  loving,  sees 
much  that  escapes  the  cold  eye  of  merely  intellectual  criticism." — Clirlstian 
Register. 


JESUS  THE  INTERPRETER  OF  NATURE,  AND  OTHER 
SERMONS.  By  Rev.  Thomas  Hill,  President  of  Antioch 
College.     12mo.     75  cents. 

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"  Clear  in  statement,  earnest  in  feeling,  with  a  loving  appreciation  of  nature, 
and  a  deep,  reverent  faith  in  revelation,  they  will  find  man)  readers." —  ZozceW 
Vox  Populi. 

"  These  discourses  are  imbued  with  that  deep  evangelical  piety,  and  illustrated 
by  that  wide,  philosophical  outlook,  for  which  their  author  is  so  eminent."  — 
Christian  Inquirer. 

'<  Mr.  flill  writes  so  simply  and  purely  that  a  child  may  understand  him,  and 
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WALKEK,    WISE,    &    CO.  S    PUBLICATIONS.  5 

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1* 


6  WALKER,    WISE,    &    CO.'S    PUBLICATIONS. 

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WALKER,    WISE,    &    CO.  S    PUBLICATIONS.  7 

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8  WALKER,    WISE,    &    CO.'S    PUBLICATIONS. 

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ALGER,  (Rev.  William  R.)     HISTORY   OF    THE    CROSS. 

A  beautiful  litt>le  liook  of  devotion,  gathering  all  the  sacred  asso- 
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and  Liturgies,  page  21. 

BARTOL.  (Rev.  C.  A.)  GRAINS  OF  GOLD.  Selections  from 
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WORD   OF   THE    SPIRIT    TO    THE    CHURCH. 

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Ledger. 


WALKER,    WISE,    &    CO.  S    PUBLICATIONS.  9 

BEAKD,  (Kev.  John  R.,  D.  D.,  of  England.)      ADDRESSES 

TO  thp:  young  on  their  origin,  duty,  and 

DESTINY,  in  answer  to  the  Questions,  "  What  am  I'i" 
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and  a  guide  to  peace. 

HISTORICAL  AND  ARTISTIC  ILLUSTRATIONS 

OF  THE  TRINITY.  Showing  the  Rise,  Progress,  and  De- 
cline of  the  Doctrine.  With  many  elucidatory  Engravings.  I 
vol.     8vo.     $  1.00. 

Full  of  curious  lore,  and  especially  interesting  as  illustrating  the 
manner  in  which  the  Trinity  was  symbolically  represented  during 
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ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  THE  DIVINE  IN   CHRISTIANITY. 

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THE  PEOPLE'S  DICTIONARY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


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"  Having  examined  with  much  interest  'The  People's  Bible  Diction- 
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"Frederic  H.  Hedge, 
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A  REVISED  ENGLISH  BIBLE  THE  WANT  OF 

THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  DEMAND  OF  THE  AGE. 

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10  WALKER,    WISE,    &    CO's.    PUBLICATIONS. 

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SABBATH    LEISURE;  or,  Religious  Recreations  in 

I'rosc  and  Verse.  Suitable  fur  reading  in  the  Intervals  of  Public 
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Unitarianism  does  not  tend  to  Unbelief.     Dr.  Watts  a  Unitarian. 


WALKER,    WISE,    &    CO.'S    PUBLICATIONS.  11 

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while  its  general  inerirs  place  it  in  the  class  of  wurics  one  woiihl  wish  to  see 
exten-sively  circulated  anions  those  who  tiiink  that  Unitarianisni  has  nothing  to 
stand  iiiinn.  or  that  it  is  a  doctrine  full  of  iniuietv." —  Christian  Examiner. 


extensively  circulated  among  those  who  thinK  that  unitarianisni  nas  noti 
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12  WALKER,    WISE,    &    CO.'S    PUBLICATIONS. 

CLAKKE,  f James  Freeman.)  THE  CHRISTIAN  DOOTRITsTl 
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free  from  all  sectarian  limitations,  and  therefore  speaks  to  a  much  larger  audience 
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peals to  the  reason,  while  he  continually  addresses  the  spiritual  nature."  — 
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WALKER,    WISE,    &    CO.'s    PUBLICATIONS.  13 

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2 


14  WALKER,    WISE,    &    CO.'S    PUBLICATIONS. 

the  sublimest  interests  of  the  soul,  and  deals  with  them  in  a  manner  worthy  of 
their  sublimity  ;  breathes  everywliere  the  luiinanity  of  a  stronfi  yet  gentle  na- 
ture ;  arouses  the  heart  of  tlie  l)rave,  the  generous,  the  honorable,  the  heroic  ; 
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MAURICE,  (Prof.)  THE  PROPHETS  AND  KINGS  OF 
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Calendar 

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Banner. 

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public  press." —  Christian  Era. 

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find  in  it,  not  only  rich  helps,  but  also  strong  attractions,  to  the  intelligent  read- 
ing of  the  prophecies  "  —  Prospective  Review. 

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and  strongly  reconmiend  our  readers  to  buy  the  book,  and  give  it  a  perusal.  It 
is  quite  new  in  the  line  of  exposition." —  Cliristian  Times. 

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and  euiineutly  suggestive We  have  followed  his  instructive  pages  with 

deligl)t." —  Christian  Examiner. 

MILES,  (Rev.  H.  A.)  THE  GOSPEL  NARRATIVES.  Their 
Origin,  Peculiarities,  and  Transmission.  Nine  thousand  copies 
of  this  book  have  been  circulated.  It  is  designed  to  meet  the 
oft-repeated  questions,  How  came  the  four  biographies  of  Jesus 
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MORISON,  (Rev.  John  H.,  D.  D.)  DISQUISITIONS  AND 
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its  results,  which  we  should  be  so  glad  to  see  sent  everywhere,  and  everywliere 
read." 


WALKER,    WISE,    &    CO.'S    PUBLICATIONS.  15 

NORTON,  (Prof.  Andrews.)  GENUINENESS  OF  THE 
GOSPELS.  This  is  the  great  work  to  which  Mr.  Norton  con- 
secrated his  life,  and  on  which  rests  liis  enduring  fume  as  a 
schoUir  and  critic.  It  brings  togetlier  from  the  stores  of  his  great 
erudition,  and  illustrates  by  the  strength  of  his  massive  ai-gument, 
the  reasons  why  an  intelligent  believer  receives  the  Gospels  as 
genuine  histories.  The  library  of  no  clergyman,  or  parish,  or 
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STATEMENT  OF  REASONS  FOR  NOT  BE- 
LIEVING THE  DOCTRINES  OF  TRINITARIANS 
CONCERNING  THE  NATURE  OF  GOD  AND  THE 
PERSON  OF  CHRIST.  Second  Edition.  With  a  Memoir 
of  the  Author  by  Rev.  Dr.  Newell  of  Cambridge.  This  is 
the  fullest,  the  ablest,  and  most  conclusive  argument  that  has 
even  been  published  on  this  subject.     12nio.     $  1.00. 

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examination  and  patient  thought,  who  are  not  di.sgusted  at  being  required  to 
exercise  a  manly  independence,  who  seek  for  truth  for  truth's  sake,  and  are 
willing  to  pay  the  price  of  its  attainment.  Such  will  find,  in  the  work  before 
us,  ample  materials  for  study  and  reflection." —  Christian  Examiner. 

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Tholuck  and  Powell,  Guizot,  Ncwconie,  Roland  Williams,  Edward  Harwood, 
and  TJiomas  Brown,  could  not  fail  to  possess  both  an  immediate  interest  and  a 
permanent  value.  Such  is  the  character  of  the  volume  before  us."  —  Professor 
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"So  valuable  a  collection,  so  interesting,  so  advanced  in  thought,  so  liberal  in 
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OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  BIBLE,  FOR  THE  USE  OF 
YOUNG  PERSONS.  This  book,  written  by  a  distinguished 
layman  of  Boston,  has  been  often  successfully  used  as  a  Manual 
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Bible,  they  may  be  put  in  the  way  of  discovering  the  explanation  of  them  ;  and 
that  they  may  be  in  some  degree  prepared  to  meet  and  answer  the  cavils  of  the 
Infidel,  and  the  pretensions  of  those  who  claim  an  exclusive  right  to  the  name 
of  Christian." 

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AFFLICTED.  A  new  and  enlarged  edition.  1  vol.  16mo. 
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16  WALKER,    WISE,    &    CO.'s    PUBLICATIONS. 

of  Discourses  ;  but  we  insert  two,  from  widely  dissimilar  (theological) 
sources  : — 

"  Not  less  chaste  and  scholarly  in  style,  not  less  mature  and  elevating  in 
thoiijrht,  than  those  of  the  deceased   pastor  of  Kiiij^'s  Chapel.  .  .  They 

touch  but  little  upon  didactic  theolofiy,  and  are  mainly  practical  and  hortatory  ^ 
but  tliey  do  strike  their  roots  int<i  Gethsemane  and  Calvary,  and  draw  ilience 
their  richest  consolations.'' —  Independent. 

"  They  exhibit  orifiinal  thoiipht,  a  hiuh  comprehension  of  religions  duty  and 
life,  and  extraordinary  power  to  control  the  attention.  The  style  is  eminently 
pure,  and  in  many  respects  the  discourses  deserve  to  be  considered  model  ser- 
mons."—  Zto/i'a  Herald. 


COMMENTARY   ON   THE   EPISTLES.    In  Prepa- 


ration. 

PERKINS,  (James  Handasyd.)     MEMOIR  OF.     See  Channing. 

RELIGIOUS  CONSOLATION.  18mo.  50  cents.  An  excellent 
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SEARS,  (Rev.  E  H.)  ATHANASIA  ;  or,  Eore^leams  of  Immor- 
tality. In  this  work,  the  subjects  of  death  and  a  future  life  ai'e 
fully  considered  ;  and  cheorino;  views  are  presented,  which  "turn 
the  shadow  of  death  into  the  morning."  16mo.  60  cents  ,  bev- 
elled boards,  80  cents. 

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largely  in  that  country. 

"  '  Athanasia '  will  stand  as  a  lovely  classic  in  sacred  literature,  and  a  beauti- 
ful inspiration  of  jture  devotional  feelinp The  best  test  of  merit  of  a 

book  is  when  we  feel  that  we  have  been  made  better  by  readinsj  it ;  and  while 
'  Athanasia '  widens  the  field  of  intellectual  vision,  and  makes  solid  and  sub- 
stantial the  hridire  from  time  to  eternity,  it  tpiickens  the  conscience  in  its  sense 
of  duty,  and  softens  tiie  heart  with  a  tenderer  and  more  celestial  love."  —  JVew 
York  Christian  Inquirer, 

"The  American  Unitarian  Association  have  never  published  a  work  which 
will  reach  the  core  of  more  souls  than  this.  The  other  productions  of  Mr.  Pears 
have  been  marked  by  the  loftiest  moral  beauty  in  the  purest  and  most  elejiant 
diction  ;  but  this  is  his  chef  d^ernvre  in  many  res[)ects.  .  .  .  On  the  whole, 
we  know  no  religions  work  of  the  age  adapted  to  make  a  deeper,  more  practi- 
cal, and  more  gladdening  impressicm  on  thoughtful  and  lofty  miuiis."  —  Buitun 
Christian  Register. 

REGENERATION.     Sixth   Edition.      It  describes  the 

necessity  and  process  of  the  great  transformation  Avhich  the  Gos- 
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HISTORICAL  PICTURES  RETOUCHED.  A  volume  of  Mis- 
cellanies in  Two  Parts. — 'Parti.  Studies. — Part  II.  Fancies. 
By  Mrs.  C,  H.  Dall,  Author  of  "  Woman's  Right  to  Labor." 
16mo.     $1.00. 

*'  These  essays  evince  rare  literary  culture,  patient  industry,  an  earnest  spirit, 
and  strong  reasoning  powers."  —  Portland  Transcript. 

"As  a  book  replete  with  facts,  eloquently  and  impressively  written,  showing 
vast  research  and  a  mind  of  no  common  order,  we  do  most  cordially  recommend 
this  work  to  the  attention  of  the  reading  public." — Mount  Auburn  Memorial. 

♦'Written  with  freshness  of  style  and  vigor  and  independence  of  thought."  — 
JVorfolk  County  Journal. 

"  It  is  a  most  pleasant,  thoughtful,  and  refreshing  volume."  —  Freeicill  Baptist 
Quarterly. 

"  Grood  to  keep  as  a  book  of  reference, and  good  to  read  because  of  its 

entertaining  and  brilliant  sketches."—  Christian  Examiner. 

SAWYER'S  TRANSLATION  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 
New,  Revised,  and  Improved  Edition.  12mo.  Cloth,  $1.00. 
Morocco,  $1.25.     Eleventh  Thousand. 

This  work  has  been  steadily  growing  in  favor,  and  before  the  end 
of  two  years  from  the  date  of  publication,  ten  thousand  copies  had  been 
sold. 

"This  is  a  remarkable  book:  it  adopts  the  latest  improvements  in  the  text, 
translates  sensibly  and  judiciously,  judges  impartially,  and  perhaps  has  solved  — 
who  knows.?  —  the  Gordian  knot  of  a  new  translation." — Christian  Inquirer, 
JVew  York. 

"This  new  version  ought  to  have  a  plaice  in  every  family  in  the  land."  — 
Evening  Transcript,  Boston. 

"  The  translation  is  singularly  accurate,  and  evinces  careful,  conscientious, 
and  diligent  scholarship." — ^''c70  Turk  Evann-elist, 

"Should  all  Christians  have  this  book  on  their  table,  they  would  have  many 
an  ancient  difficulty  made  easier  by  it,  and  many  an  antiquated  error  corrected." 
—  Philadelphia  Evening  Journal. 

KATHERINE  MORRIS.     An  Autobiography.     By  the  Author  of 
"Step  by  Step;  or  Delia  Arlington,"   and  "Here  and  Here- 
after."    12mo.     $1.00. 
Without  any  loud  pretensions,  or  attempts  at  creatin    a  sensation, 


24  WALKER,    WISE,    &    CO/S    PUBLICATIONS. 

this  thoroutrhly  good  l)ook  has  noiselcsply  made  its  way  into  the  hands 
of  appivciativi;  readers  and  critics  Even  tht;  Loi^don  Athtnaum  gives 
it  a  hearty  commendation  for  its  spiait,  and  execuiion. 

"  Amori2  Tlio  excellent  rolii^ions  tales  wliirh  exliibit  in  so  attractive  form  mary 
phases  of  the  popular  Christianity,  we  are  (.'lafi  U'  call  special  altenliou  to  cue  cf 
the  latest,  and,  it  Fecms  to  its.  one  of  the  best." —  Christian  Eiamnicr. 

"  Pervaded  hy  a  fine  relifrious  spirit,  it  leaves  the  be.-t  impression  wliich  this 
kind  of  literature  is  capable  of  pmducinfr."  —  Rclifriovs  .Munazntr. 

"  The  earnest  piety  of  a  true  Christian  is  constantly  manifest,  and  the  moral  of 
the  tale  is  well  inculcaled." —  ISaturdaij  Evening  Oazctte. 

THE  BOY  INVENTOR.  A  Memoir  of  Matthew  Edwards,  by  the 
Author  of  "  The  Age  of  Eable."     Illustrated.     IGmo.     50  cents. 

Harely  does  a  little  book  make  its  way  so  rapidly.  The  first  edi- 
tion (one  thousand  copies)  sold  in  about  six  weeks.  Hundreds  of 
critical  notices  could  be  appended,  indicating  the  favor  with  wliicli  it 
has  been  received  by  the  press.  The  burden  of  all  is,  that  the  volume 
is  invaluable  as  a  stimulation  to  patient  industry,  and  improvement  of 
opportunities.     Every  boy  iu  the  land  should  read  it. 

THE  CHURCH  OF  THE  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES  ;  or, 
Notices  (/f  the  Lives  and  Opinions  of  some  of  the  Eaily  Fathers, 
with  special  Reference  to  tlie  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  illustrating 
its  Late  Origin  and  Gradual  Formation.  By  Alvan  La3ison, 
D.D.     8vo.     $1.75. 

"  In  this  erudite  work,  an  exposition  is  piven  of  the  early  theolopy  of  the 
Christian  Church,  as  exemplified  in  the  opinions  of  Justin  Martyr,  Clement  of 
Alexandria,  Orisicii,  and  Eiisebius."  —  JV.  Y.  Tribune. 

"  Dr.  Lamson's  careful  habits  of  inquiry,  sagacious  discernment,  candid  mod- 
eration, familiMriiy  with  ancient  learning,  and  lucid  and  direct  style,  have  jiro- 
duccd  a  work  full  of  entertaining  information,  which  can  be  de[)ended  upon  for 
its  accuracy,  and  attractive  by  its  literary  execution." —  Christian  Reiristrr. 

"We  conceive  this  to  be  a  hiuhlv  valuable  publication.  Jt  sliows  the  human 
origin  of  tlic  dcctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and  graces  its  pradu.il  growth,  and  incor- 
poration into  the  Christian  Church." —  Christian  Auihas^ador. 

In  addition  to  other  forcible  testimony  on  tiiis  side  tl)e  Atlantic,  the 
London  Critical  Journals  bear  Avitness  to  Dr.  Lamson's  scholarly 
ability  and  fairness. 

UNITARIANISM  DEFINED.  The  Scripture  Doctrine  of  the 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost.  A  Course  of  Lectures  by  Rev. 
Dr  Faiiley,  of  Brooklyn.     12mo.     75  cents. 

"  A  more  clear,  full,  and  candid  statement  of  the  question  at  issue  between  the 
Unitarian  and  Orthodox  theories  of  Christianity  it  is  impossible  to  make.  His 
])lea  is  that  of  a  lawyer,  —  calm,  careful,  and  unimpassioned  ;  and  there  is  not  a 
word  in  it  to  pive  offence,  even  to  those  whose  opinions  it  criticises.  Such  a 
work  is  sure  to  find  an  extensive  and  permanent  circnl.ition,  a?!(l  will  take  rai:k 
will)  the  best  standard  treatises.  Wo  commend  it  to  our  readers  as  a  book  worth 
ownini:." —  T/invtmi  Rrpvhiican. 

"  It  would  bo  difficult  to  find  more  pertinent  quotations  from  the  Bible,  close 
reasoning,  atid  forcible  application  of  larre  thec^Iojiical  roadin<r  on  the  subject,  in 

the  snme  limited  space We  have  been  iirirticnlarly  pleased  uitli  the  clos- 

iiiK  lecture,  which  is  devoted  to  the  con'^idcntion  (  f  the  antiquity  of  IJtntarirm- 
ism,  and  sketches,  in  a  masterly  summary,  its  history  in  the  world." —  Christian 
Resister. 


^jCf'  Fo^  ^ist   of  our  own  Publications,  comprising  some  of  the  most  important 
denominational  works,  see  preceding  Catalogue. 


ADDITIONAL   CATALOGUE 

OF 

STA.ISrD  A-HD    BOOKS, 

CHIEFLY   BY 

EMINENT  UNITAKIAN  DIVINES, 

FOR   SALE   BY 

WALKER,    WISE,    &    CO., 

PUBLISHERS    FOR    THE     AMERICAN     UNITARIAN    ASSOCIATION, 
245  Washington  Stieet,  Boston. 


The  subjoined  List  comprises  a  portion  of  the  most  noticeable 
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DOXY.    75  cents. 

ALTAR  AT  HOME.  A  Collection  of  Prayers  for  Private  and 
Social  Use,  written  by  Unitarian  Ministers  in  and  near  Boston. 
12mo.     60  cents.     9th  edition. 

BARTOL,  (Rev.  C.  A.)  THE  CHRISTIAN  BODY  AND 
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Pastor  of  the  West  Church,  Boston.     12mo.     $  1.00. 

CHURCH  AND  CONGREGATION  :  a  Plea  for  their 

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BELLOWS,    (Rev.   H.    A.,  D.  D.)      RESTATEMENTS     OF 

CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE.     12mo.    $1.25. 
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CHILD,  (L.  Maria.)  PROGRESS  OF  RELIGIOUS  IDEAS. 
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